CHAPTER XV
IN THE STRANGE DRAUGHT
The boys ran to attend to the engines and apparatus to which they hadbeen assigned in view of this emergency. The professor, Washington,Bill, Tom and Andy, who had kept to themselves since the descent, camerunning out of the small cabin where they usually sat, and wanted toknow what it was all about.
"We may hit something, in spite of all precautions," Mr. Hendersonremarked. "Slow down the ship."
The _Mermaid_ was, accordingly checked in her downward flight, by aliberal use of the gas and the negative gravity machine.
The bell continued to ring, and the dials pointed to the mark thatindicated the ship was more than one hundred and fifty miles down.
Mark, who had run to the engine room to check the descent, came back.
"Why didn't you slow her down?" asked the professor.
"I did," replied the boy. "The negative gravity and the gas machines areworking at full speed."
"Then why are we still descending?" asked the scientist. "For a whileour speed was checked, but now we are falling faster than before."
"I attended to the apparatus," Mark insisted.
Just then, from without the ship, came a terrible roaring sound, asthough there was a great cyclone in progress. At the same time, thoseaboard the craft could feel themselves being pulled downward withterrific force.
"We are caught in a draught!" Mr. Henderson cried. "We are being suckeddown into the depths of the earth!"
He ran to the engine room. With the help of the boys he set in motion anauxiliary gravity machine, designed to exert a most powerful influenceagainst the downward pull of the earth. As they watched the great wheelsspin around, and heard the hum and whirr of the dynamos, the boyswatched the pointer which indicated how low they were getting.
And, as they watched, they saw that the needle of the dial kept moving,moving, moving.
"Our efforts are useless! We can't stop!" the professor cried.
Grave indeed was the plight of the adventurers. In their ship they werebeing sucked down into unknown regions and all their efforts did notavail to save them. It was an emergency they could not guard against,and which could not have been foreseen.
"What are to do?" asked Mark.
"We can only wait," Mr. Henderson replied. "The terrible suction maycease, or it may carry us to some place of safety. Let us hope for thebest."
Seeing there was no further use in running the engines in an effort tocheck the downward rush the machines were stopped. Then they waited forwhatever might happen.
Now that they seemed in imminent peril Washington was as cool as anyone. He went about putting his kitchen in order and getting ready forthe next meal as if they were sailing comfortably along on the surfaceof the ocean. As for old Andy he was nervous and frightened, and plainlyshowed it. With his gun in readiness he paced back and forth as if onthe lookout for strange beasts or birds.
Bill and Tom were so alarmed that they were of little use in doinganything, and they were not disturbed in their staterooms where theywent when it became known that the ship was unmanageable.
The boys and the professor, while greatly frightened at the unexpectedturn of events, decided there was no use in giving way to foolish alarm.They realized they could do nothing but await developments.
At the same time they took every precaution. They piled all the beddingon the floor of the living room, so that the pillows and mattressesmight form a sort of pad in case the ship was dashed down on the bottomof the big hole.
"Not that it would save us much," Jack observed with a grim smile, "butsomehow it sort of makes your mind easier."
All this while the ship was being sucked down at a swift pace. Thepointer of the gage, indicating the depth, kept moving around and soonthey were several hundreds of miles below the surface of the earth.
The professor tried, by means of several instruments, to discover inwhich direction they were headed, and whether they were going straightdown or at an angle. But some strange influence seemed to affect thegages and other pieces of apparatus, for the pointers and hands wouldswing in all directions, at one time indicating that they were goingdown, and, again, upward.
"There must be a strong current of electricity here," Mr. Hendersonsaid, "or else there is, as many suspect, a powerful magnet at thecenter of the earth, which we are nearing."
"What will you do if the ship is pulled apart, or falls and is smashed?"asked Mark with much anxiety.
"You take a cheerful view of things," said Jack.
"Well, it's a good thing to prepare for emergencies," Mark added.
"If the ship was to be separated by the magnetic pull, or if it fell onsharp rocks and was split in twain, I am afraid none of us could doanything to save ourselves," the professor answered. "Still, if we weregiven a little warning of the disaster, I have means at hand whereby wemight escape with our lives. But it would be a perilous way of----"
"I reckon yo' all better come out an' have supper," broke in Washington."Leastways we'll call it supper, though I don't rightly know whetherit's night or mornin'. Anyhow I've got a meal ready."
"I don't suppose any of us feel much like eating," observed Mr.Henderson, "but there is no telling when we will have the chance again,so, perhaps, we had better take advantage of it."
For a while they ate in silence, finding that they had better appetitesthan they at first thought. Old Andy in particular did full justice tothe food Washington had prepared.
"I always found it a good plan to eat as much and as often as you can,"the hunter remarked. "This is a mighty uncertain world."
"You started to tell us a little while ago, Professor," said Mark,"about a plan you had for saving out lives if worst came to worst, andthere was a chance to put it into operation. What is it?"
"I will tell you," the aged inventor said. "It is something about whichI have kept silent, as I did not want to frighten any of you. It was mylatest invention, and I had only perfected it when we started off onthis voyage. Consequently I had no chance to try it. The machine worksin theory, but whether it does in practice is another question. That iswhy I say there is a risk. But we may have to take this risk. I haveplaced aboard this ship a----"
The professor was interrupted in what he was about to say by a curioustremor that made the whole ship shiver as though it had struck someobstruction. Yet there was no sudden jolt or jar such as would have beenoccasioned by that.
At the same time Washington, who was out in the kitchen, came runninginto the dining room, crying:
"We're droppin' into a ragin' fire, Perfesser!"
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Henderson.
"I jest took a look down through th' hole in th' bottom of the ship!"cried Washington. "It's all flames an' smoke below us!"
"I wonder if it is the end," the professor muttered in a low voice.
Followed by the boys, the inventor hastened to the floor-window. Thelights were turned off to enable a better view to be had of what wasbelow them.
Leaning over the glass protected aperture the boys and the professorsaw, far, far down, a bright light shining. It was as if they were milesabove a whole town of blast furnaces, the stacks of which were belchingforth flames and smoke. The rolling clouds of vapor were illuminated bya peculiar greenish light, which, at times, turned to red, blue, purpleand yellowish hues.
The effect was weird and beautiful though it was full of terror for thetravelers. It seemed as if they were falling into some terrible pit offire, for the reflection of what they feared were flames, could plainlybe seen.
"I wish I'd never come on this terrible voyage!" wailed Washington. "I'drather freeze to death than be burned up."
"Washington, be quiet!" commanded the professor sternly. "This is notime for foolishness. We must work hard to save our lives, for we are indire peril.
"Mark, you and Washington, with Jack, start the engines. Turn on everybit of power you can. Fill the gas holder as
full as it will hold, anduse extra heavy pressure. I will see if I can not work the negativegravity apparatus to better advantage than we did before. We must escapeif possible!"
The boys, as was also Washington, were only too glad to have somethingto do to take their mind off their troubles. All three were muchfrightened, but Mark and Jack tried not to show it. As for Washington hewas almost crying.
Soon the whirr and hum of the machinery in the _Mermaid_ was heard. Thecraft, which was rushing in some direction, either downward, ahead orbackwards within the unknown depths, shivered from the speed of thedynamos and other apparatus. Soon the boys could hear the professorstarting the negative gravity engine, and then began a struggle betweenthe forces of nature and those of mankind.
Once more the adventurers anxiously watched the gages and indicators.For a while the ship seemed to be holding out against the terribleinfluence that was sucking her down. She appeared to hesitate. Then, asthe downward force triumphed over the mechanical energy in the craft,she began to settle again, and soon was descending, if that was thedirection, as fast as before.
"It is of no use," said the professor with a groan. "I must try our lastresort!"
He started from the engine room where Mark and Jack had gone. As he didso, he glanced at a thermometer hanging on the wall near the door.
"Has any one turned on the heat?" he asked.
"It's shut off," replied Mark, looking at the electric stove.
"Then what makes it so hot?" asked the scientist.
He pointed to the little silvery column in the tiny tube of theinstrument. It registered close to one hundred degrees, though a fewminutes before it had been but sixty. And the starting of the machinerycould not account for the rise in temperature, since most of theapparatus was run by electricity and developed little heat save in theimmediate proximity. The thermometer was fully ten feet away from anymachine.
"It's the fiery furnace that's doing it!" cried Washington. "We'refalling into th' terrible pit an' we're goin' t' be roasted alive!"
"It certainly is getting warmer," observed Mark, as he took off hiscoat. Soon he had to shed his vest, and Jack and the professor followedhis example. The others too, also found all superfluous garments aburden, and, in a little while they were going about in scanty attire.
Still the heat increased, until it was almost torture to remain in theengine room. Nor was it much cooler elsewhere. In vain did the professorset a score of big electric fans to whirring. He even placed cakes ofice, from the small ice machine that was carried, in front of therevolving blades, to cool off the air. But the ice was melted almost assoon as it was taken from the apparatus.
"Them flames is gittin worser!" Washington cried a little later. "We'scomin' nearer!"
From the bottom window the professor and the boys looked down. Trueenough the curious, changing, vari-colored lights seemed brighter. Theycould almost see the tongues of flame shooting upward in anticipation ofwhat they were soon to devour.
The heat was increasing every minute. The sides of the ship were hot.The heads of the travelers were getting dizzy. They could hardly talk ormove about.
"I must save our lives! I must trust to the----" The professor, who wasmuttering to himself started toward the storeroom. As in a dream Markwatched him. He remembered afterward that he had speculated on whatmight be the outcome of the mystery the professor threw about the place."I will have to use it," he heard the scientist say softly.
Just as Mr. Henderson was about to open the door there came a fiercerblast of heat than any that had preceded. At the same instant theconditions in the _Mermaid_ became so fearful that each of the travelersfelt himself fainting away.
"Go to--storeroom--get cylinder--get in----" the professor murmured, andthen he fell forward in a faint.