*CHAPTER X.*
*CAPTURED BY A COMET.*
The _Ivenia_, the great Martian airship, sped onwards upon its wonderfulvoyage for a period of nearly two months without anything occurring tointerrupt its continuous progress. Then, one night, there came astartling interruption of its smooth, gliding flight through space--onethat nearly terminated it for good and all.
It so happened that the two chums were sitting up that night with MrArmeath in the conning-tower, a privilege but seldom accorded to any onenot actually engaged in the navigation of the ship. The officer incharge, however, was one named Malanda, the one who had been inattendance on the king when Gerald had saved his life. He it was whohad recognised the lad at the critical moment when he had been aprisoner, and since that time he had treated him with marked kindness.
The conning-tower was a roomy apartment, very curiously constructed. Itcould be raised or depressed by mechanical means, so that at some timesit projected above the outer surface of the ship, while at others it wasjust level with it. In the former case there was a clear view in alldirections except immediately beneath; in the latter there was no directview save upwards; but the images of outside objects were then thrown onto a screen, as in a camera-obscura.
Upon this eventful night the conning-tower had been raised, and the twochums had been amusing themselves by peering through powerful telescopesat the heavenly bodies around them.
It was truly a wonderful, a fascinating sight, and one which Gerald,especially, was never tired of contemplating. The variousconstellations blazed out with a vividness and beauty far exceedingtheir appearance as seen through our atmosphere from the surface of theEarth. Thanks to Malanda, the two lads had learned to distinguish theplanets from the far-more distant fixed stars. They knew that thelatter were at such tremendous distances that they 'didn't count,' asJack put it; the only ones they were likely to have anything to do withbeing the planets, which, like our Earth, are always revolving round oursun.
Of course, as they were going to visit Mars, they watched that orbparticularly; and they felt a special interest in noting how itspinkish-red light increased in size and intensity as they drew nearer.Next in interest came our Earth, which they had so recently left, whosebluish light waned exactly in proportion as that of Mars waxed stronger.Then there was beautiful Saturn, with its wondrous rings of light;perhaps they were also to visit that mysterious orb, and learn whatthose lustrous bands were composed of!
Besides these, there were plenty of curious things to watch and admire.The planets had their moons in attendance upon them--some having two,some as many as eight--all behaving as our own moon does--each, that isto say, showing in turn as a thin crescent, a half-moon, a full-moon,and so on; and the voyagers had watched these changes with interestwhich never flagged. It seemed such a strange thing to think of:several moons round one planet; one, perhaps, a new moon; and two orthree others near the full, all shining at the same time!
Now, it was while they were gazing at these beautiful sights that Jacknoticed a tiny speck of light which struck him as unfamiliar. Hementioned it in an undertone to Gerald, who, just then, washalf-watching what was to be seen of Saturn, half-dreaming of what laybeyond. Gerald pointed his telescope in the direction indicated, andlooked at the speck of light, but seeing nothing particular in itsappearance, turned his attention again to other objects.
Jack, however, was more observant. His acute, practical sense had toldhim that here was something different from anything he had seen before.He promptly recognised two or three very important points in connectionwith it. One was that its light was different in colour from that ofanything else he could see. Another was that it was very unsteady, yetit did not 'twinkle' as do the far-distant stars; and yet another wasthat it was growing in intensity very quickly.
'Therefore,' said Jack to himself, 'I believe it must be comparativelynear, and coming towards us at a most tremendous rate.' Finally, hedrew Mr Armeath's attention to the phenomenon.
Armeath in turn pointed it out to Malanda, who had no sooner glanced atit than he rushed across the floor of the chamber to some levers, whichhe began to manipulate, at the same time setting a number of bellsringing in various parts of the great aerostat. One of these, as itafterwards appeared, rang out its urgent message in thesleeping-apartment of the king, who roused at once from his slumber andhurried to the conning-tower.
Before his arrival, however, the alarm bells had summoned others to theplace, and from their excited talk the chums quickly learnt the cause ofthe excitement. For they had worked at the study of the Martianlanguage to such good purpose that by this time they could understandmost of what was said.
There were many confused exclamations, and much incoherent talk; butamidst it all they heard again and again the cry, 'A comet! A comet!'
Just then Jack found the engineer Monck beside him, and he asked forfurther information.
'I cannot tell you much about it now, my lad,' was the reply; 'but Iknow that this is one of the gravest dangers of our voyage. Comets havewell been called "the spectres of space." The planets and their moonsmove in certain well-defined orbits or tracks, and you know exactlywhere you are likely to meet them and what to do if you wish to avoidthem. But comets seem to be controlled by no known law, and you nevercan tell where you may encounter them. Compared with any of the planets,they are, of course, small; but they are enormous compared with ouraerostat, and quite big enough to accomplish our destruction if one ofthem ran against us. So you can understand that great care is necessarywhen one is sighted.'
'These people seem very excited; do you think there is serious danger,sir?' Gerald asked.
'No, no--a--at least, I hope not. But when a comet is anywhere near itis always a relief when we are safely past it. You will see, however,that all will quiet down when our royal master is here. He is the onlyone, I believe, who really knows how to meet the danger.'
The words were scarcely spoken when they were verified by the king'sarrival. As his stately form strode into the chamber, a great hush fellupon those assembled there, and, like magic, quiet and orderly proceduretook the place of what had looked very much like unreasoning panic.
He stood for a few moments gazing around to take in the situation, thenhe looked at the advancing comet, which could now be plainly seenwithout any telescope furiously rushing, at tremendous speed, seeminglystraight at the ship.
Flashes and bursts of light accompanied it like explosions of mightybombshells, lighting up the interior of the conning-tower as mightflashes of terrible lightning. Already it had grown from a tiny speckof light to a ball of fire as large as our moon looks at the full; andit was rapidly growing bigger and bigger.
Then Ivanta gave a series of orders in sharp, commanding tones, and someof the crowd of officers went off to execute them. The doors of thechamber were closed, and a moment later the conning-tower sank down, andall became dark save for a fiery image which was now to be seen upon alarge screen. This gave a view of the comet as it would have appearedif they had still been looking direct at it. From the apparent size ofa moon it had now grown to twice as large as our sun looks to us. Itsshape was no longer round, but was changing each second, the continualexplosions sending out irregular masses of fire upon all sides in turn.
Even as seen upon the screen it was an awful sight to look upon. Itseemed like some gigantic, fiery monster bent upon devouring them.
Armeath put a hand affectionately upon each of his wards. He could seethat the position of the aerostat was critical, and that they were allin terrible danger. It was not a moment for talk or comment, but hebent down and whispered a few words in the ears of the two lads. 'Weare in the hands of God, my boys,' he said devoutly. 'Such things asthese are but some of the smallest and most puny of His great works! IfHe so wills it we shall pass the danger safely, and live to remember itwith admiration and wonder in place of fear!'
The fiery shape grew in size
till it covered the whole screen, and inintensity till, even as thus reflected, the light from it was almostblinding. Then there came a close, stifling feeling, and the chambergrew so hot as to become almost intolerable. They were conscious ofsomething which whizzed past them with a frightful roar. In a second itwas gone, and the heat and light grew perceptibly less.
'It has passed!' murmured Armeath; and he breathed a prayer ofthankfulness.
Monck, who had remained alongside them, gave a gasp of relief.
'That's the nearest brush we've ever had since I 've been on board!' hemuttered.
'Has it really gone? Are we safe now, do you think, sir?' Gerald askedin a whisper. Both lads had held their breath at the critical moment.Though they had shown no signs of panic, the strain had been prettysevere, and they breathed more freely now.
'Yes, it has gone--shot past us like a flash. And now'----
Suddenly the aerostat gave a lurch, and then swerved from its course soabruptly as almost to throw the voyagers off their feet. To them itfelt as if it had swung round in a great half-circle, and was now flyingalong in the opposite direction to that in which they had been going.
It was the first time since leaving the Earth that the travellers hadexperienced anything that could be called a jar or swerve; and they nowstared at one another in startled surprise.
What could it mean?
Ivanta's voice was heard issuing hurried orders, and his officershastened to execute them. Malanda crossed the floor to handle a levernear to where Monck was standing.
'What is it, friend Malanda?' asked the engineer, in an anxiousundertone.
'We are caught in the attractive power of the comet,' was the answer,'and it is pulling us along after it. Unless we can manage to fightfree, this ship will follow the comet through space as long as it maycontinue to rush about on its erratic journey, which would probably meanat least a thousand years!'