CHAPTER XXV
ENGULFED IN A VOLCANO'S DUST
With three hundred gallons of gasoline in her tanks, and her brokentail-elevator well repaired, the Sky-Bird was ready at eleven o'clockthat evening to take off. Her crew were all tired out, but they knewthey would soon be able to occupy the comfortable seats or hammocks inthe cabin for another long stretch of over-sea travel, for it would bemorning before they would reach Port Darwin, Australia, their next stop.
It had been raining very hard in Singapore just before they arrived,and the field was quite wet, with many puddles in the low spots.Through one or two of these they had had to run in landing, and itseemed that in hopping off they would be forced to do so again.Fortunately the ground was sandy, so they had come to a stop in a spotnot at all muddy, and had thus been able to work upon the machinewithout the discomforts of wading in slime while doing it.
They now started the engine, Tom climbed in, and they were off, runningover the soft ground at increasing speed. Then the airplane struck apool of water, five or six inches deep, which almost pulled them up.It also held them back so that when the machine emerged it was goingvery little faster than at the beginning. The next patch of ground wasa little longer, but they had not risen when they struck it at a rateof about twenty-five miles an hour.
This pool was also quite deep, and the sudden resistance almost threwthe Sky-Bird onto her nose. It did cause her to dip so that her longpropeller struck the puddle, and immediately water and sand were suckedup and thrown in almost every direction by the swiftly revolvingblades. Much of it reached the natives, who in two long rows ofcurious humanity, formed a lane for the passage of the craft, and manya poor fellow gave a howl and fell back against those behind,spluttering and rubbing grit and water from his face, while rivuletscoursed down his dusky body amid the howls of laughter of his mates.
The flyers had only a fleeting glimpse of this amusing incident beforethey found the front windows of the cabin so covered with the deluge ofspray that they could scarcely see ahead. Two of them quickly openedthe portals, for a grave danger menaced them.
Less than sixty yards ahead was the lower fence of the field, and justback of this arose scrub trees and houses, with no opening betweenwhich could be utilized. They must clear these formidable obstacles,looming bigger every second, and the distance was alarmingly short, forthe last pool had again retarded their momentum to such an extent thatthey had just barely staggered through it.
Picking up speed once more at every turn of her propeller, the Sky-Birdshot down the last stretch of ground reaching to the fence. How fastthis obstruction loomed up! Just in the nick of time the airplane leftthe ground. They sailed over the tops of trees and houses so closethat the wheels of their landing-gear almost scraped. It was one ofthe finest maneuvers of the whole voyage, and the boys praised John sofor his good piloting that he had to ask them to desist.
After a wide sweep above Singapore, they headed for the open water,which in this case happened to be South China Sea.
The weather was very threatening. Dark-looking clouds began to effacethe moon and stars, whose light had aided in the take-off at Singapore,and within fifteen minutes occasional flashes of sheet-lightning couldbe seen far ahead, throwing into relief the immense bulk of theforeboding clouds and shedding a pallid gleam over the sea.Occasionally a light zephyr came out of the east, but it would lastonly a moment.
"We ought to be just about over the equator now," announced John alittle later.
Paul and Bob had stayed up on purpose to witness this event, and bydead reckoning had computed their position so closely that John'sannouncement had come just as they were about to make a similarstatement. Although they could see no "line" stretching along downthere in the sea, they fancied they could, with the most pleasantimagery. That great line, the belt of the universe, dividing theNorthern and Southern hemispheres, they had already crossed once, intheir zigzagging course, at the mouth of the Amazon. Now here in theSouth China Sea they were crossing it a second time. At no time hadthey been more than thirteen degrees away from it. One more crossingof it, if all went well, and they would be almost within sight of theend of their journey--Panama!
With this pleasant thought Bob and Paul rolled up in their hammocks,trusting John and Tom to bring them safely through the bad weather thatseemed in store, and were soon asleep.
To the two older flyers, used to all conditions of aerial passage as aresult of several years' experience, the present conditions were not atall terrifying. Although the spectacle of the dark clouds in front ofthem was extremely uncanny, they realized that they were only localthunder showers which could probably be avoided by a little carefulnavigating.
In this they were right. By wheeling a little out of their course, tothe left or right, and by flying up over one big cloud which could notbe avoided in any other manner, they managed to dodge the mostdangerous fields of lightning and the worst torrents of rain.
Presently they left the dark clouds far behind, and once more the starsappeared in the blue firmament above and the pale moon lit up thetropical sea.
With relief John guided the Sky-Bird lower, so that they could keep asharp lookout for guide-posts of land. They passed several smallislets which were uncharted with them, but when, about midnight, theymade out a great black blotch not far ahead, they recognized it as thesouthern end of the island of Borneo, and knew they were all right.
In a little while Borneo was sweeping along below them, its mangrovedshores gloomy and desolate-looking, not to say weird, in the palemoonlight. Among those dense forests and thickets the flyers knew manya wild animal was prowling at that very moment, and in the thatchedhuts in the glens slept many a fierce-visaged savage with weapons closeat hand.
Toward morning the flyers observed a volcano in active eruption off tothe southeastward, apparently on the island of Timor. It was abeautiful sight, so wonderful that John awoke the sleepers, that theytoo might enjoy it. Fantastic lights of various colors shot upwardfrom the crater. These shafts lit up billowing clouds of smoke andashes, which poured out in awe-inspiring volume. Back of it all stoodthe dark-blue velvet sky, against which the pyrotechnics were embossedin a stunning manner. Man could never have wished to witness a moreremarkable manifestation of nature than did the young aviators, as theyviewed the spectacle from their own favored position in the air.
Swiftly the Sky-Bird drew them toward the volcano, for it was directlyin their course. As they approached, they could see flames lickingtheir way upward from the dark mass of rock constituting the shaft, andcould make out streams of lava pouring over the sides of the crater,going down into the unknown blackness below. What a sight it was! Howtheir pulses beat! How their hearts quickened!
But now, very unexpectedly, the sight was shut out. Thin, pungent,volcanic smoke and ash began to surround them. In a few moments it wasso thick that they grew alarmed. All had the same fearful thought--
If this should continue a little while, they would lose their bearings,and might run right into the fountain of fire itself!
This was a terrifying possibility, for it would mean a horrible deathto every one of them. Fireproof though the airplane was in the generalsense of the word, every one of those in her cabin knew that if theyshould ever pass through those licking flames, the great heat in themwould fairly melt the light structure of the machine in the twinklingof an eye. No metal or wood could withstand that terrible blast amoment, much less human flesh.
It is small wonder, therefore, that Tom now sent the Sky-Bird off tothe right, and higher, also. They closed the windows, to keep out thefoul smells, and anxiously awaited developments. They could not see ayard in front of them, so thick were the smoke and gases. It was atrying time.
Fortunately Tom had taken the best course he could. Five minutespassed--ten minutes--fifteen--and then the air began to clear. Slowlythe curtain lifted; and presently looking back, they saw that they hadpassed the volcano and were leaving it and the island
well behind.
Its fires, too, seemed to be burning out. Only a few forks of ghostlylight were coming up from the crater. These grew fainter and fainter,and in a little while the eruption seemed to have entirely subsided,for Timor was swallowed up once more in the impenetrable mantle ofnight.