CHAPTER XVII
A STRANGE COUNTRY
They all ran to the port holes, which were openings in the side of theship. They were fitted with thick, double glass, and covered on theoutside with steel shutters. These shutters were worked by a singlelever from the engine room, so that one person could open or close themin a second or two. Washington, by accident, it appeared later, had slidback the protecting pieces of steel, and the rest followed.
As the adventurers looked from the glass ports they saw that the lightwhich had flooded the ship came from without. They were in the midst ofa beautiful glow, which seemed to be diffused about them like rays froma sun.
Only, in place of being a yellow or white light, such as the sun givesoff at varying times, the glow was of violet hue. And, as they watched,they saw the light change color, becoming a beautiful red, then blue,and again green.
"Well, this is certainly remarkable!" the professor said. "I wonder whatcauses that."
"We've arrived! We're here, anyhow!" Washington cried, coming into theroom. "See the country!"
Then, for the first time, the travelers, taking their attention from thecurious light that was all around them, saw that they had indeedarrived. They were on a vast plain, one, seemingly, boundless in extent,though off to the left there was a range of lofty mountains, while tothe right there was the glimmer of what might be a big lake or inlandsea.
"See, we are resting on the ground!" exclaimed Jack. He pointed out ofthe window, and the others, looking close at hand, noted that the_Mermaid_ had settled down in the midst of what seemed to be a field offlowers. Big red and yellow blossoms were all in front, and some grew sotall as to almost be up to the edge of the port.
"I wonder if we can be seeing aright," the professor muttered. "Is thisreally the interior of the earth; such a beautiful place as this?"
There could be little doubt of it. The ship had descended through thebig shaft, had been sucked down by the terrible air current, and hadreally landed in a strange country.
Of its size, shape and general conditions the adventurers, as yet, couldbut guess. They could see it was a pleasant place, and one where theremight be the means to sustain life. For, as the professor saidafterward, he felt that where there were flowers there would be fruits,and where both of these provisions of nature were to be found therewould likely be animal life, and even, perhaps, human beings.
But, for the time, they were content to look from the port on thebeautiful scene that lay stretched out before them. The ship rested onan even keel and had landed so softly that none of the plates werestrained.
"We have plenty of air, at all events," said the professor as he took adeep breath. "I was afraid of that, but it seems there was no need. Theair appears to be as good and fresh as that on the surface of the earth,only there is a curious property to it. It makes one feel larger. Iimagine it must be thinner than the air of the earth, which is a ratherstrange thing, since the higher one goes the more rarefied the airbecomes, and the lower, the more dense. Still we can not apply naturalphilosophy to conditions under the earth. All the usual theories may beupset. However, we should be content to take things as we find them, andbe glad we were not dashed to pieces when the ship was caught in theterrible current."
"What do you suppose caused the awful heat, and then made it go awayagain?" asked Jack.
"I can only make a guess at it," Mr. Henderson answered. "There are manystrange things we will come across if we stay here long, I believe. Asfor the fire I think we must have passed a sort of interior volcano."
"But what sort of a place do you think we have come to, Professor?"asked Mark.
"It is hard to say," the scientist replied. "We are certainly somewherewithin the earth. Our gage tells us it is five hundred miles. That mayor may not be correct, but I believe we are several hundred miles underthe crust, at all events. As to what sort of a place it is, you can seefor yourselves."
"But how is it we can breathe here, and things can grow?" asked Bill,who was beginning to lose his fright at the thought of being practicallyburied alive.
"I do not know what makes such things possible," Mr. Henderson replied,"but that there is air here is a certainty. I can hardly believe it isdrawn from the surface of the earth, down the big hole, and I aminclined to think this place of the under-world has an atmosphere of itsown, and one which produces different effects than does our own."
"They certainly have larger flowers than we have," said Mark. "See howbig they grow, and what strong colors they have."
He pointed to the port, against which some of the blooms were nodding inthe wind that had sprung up, for, in spite of the many differences, theunder-world was in some respects like the upper one.
"Probably the difference in the atmosphere accounts for that," theprofessor said. "It enables things to grow larger. And, by the way,Mark, that reminds me of something you said about seeing some horriblemonster fleeing from the ship. Did you dream that?"
"I did see something horrible, Professor," he answered. "I'm notpositive what it was, but I'll tell you as nearly as I can what it waslike."
Thereupon Mark detailed what he had seen.
"But how could anything, least of all some big monster, be concealed inthe storeroom, and we not know anything about it?" asked Mr. Henderson.
"I thought you did know something of it," replied Mark.
"Who, me? My dear boy, you must be dreaming again. Why should I want toconceal any being in the storeroom? Come, there is something back ofthis. Tell me all you know of it. I can't imagine why you think I washiding something in the apartment."
"I thought so because you were always so anxious not to have me go nearit," answered the boy. "Don't you remember when you saw me going towardit, several times, you warned me away?"
"So I did!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson, a light breaking over his face."But, Mark, it was not because I had hidden some human being or animalthere. I can't tell you what it is yet, save that I can say it is merelya machine of mine that I have invented. For reasons of my own I don'twant any one to see it yet. Perhaps it may never be seen. I thought, notlong ago, that we might have to undertake a terrible risk in escapingfrom this place. I directed you to go to the storeroom--but there, Ican't say any more, my friends. Sufficient that I had nothing in theanimal line concealed there."
"But I am certain there was some beast or human being in there,"insisted Mark. "I heard curious noises in there. Besides, how do youaccount for the food disappearing and the door being open at times?"
"It might have been rats," said Jack.
"I don't believe there are rats in the ship," put in the professor."More likely it was one of us who got up hungry and took the victuals."
"I'm sorry I can't agree with you," Mark added respectfully. "I am suresome strange being was on board this ship, and I believe it has nowescaped. Who or what it was I can't say, but you'll find I'm right, someday."
"All right," spoke Mr. Henderson with a laugh. "I like to see any onebrave enough to stick up for his opinion, but, at the same time, I can'tvery well imagine any person or thing being concealed in that storeroomever since we started. How could it get in?"
Mark did not answer, but there came to him the recollection of thatnight, previous to the sailing of the _Flying Mermaid_, when he hadobserved some strange shadow that seemed to glide aboard the craft.
"Now let's forget all about such things," the professor went on. "We arein a strange country, and there are many things to see and do. Let'sexplore a little. Then we must see what we can do with the ship. We aredependent on it, and it will not do to allow it to remain in a damagedstate. We expect to travel many miles in the interior of the earth if itis possible, and we have only our craft to go in."
"I reckon we'd all better assimilate into our interior progression somemolecules and atoms of partly disentegrated matter in order to supplycombustion for the carbonaceous elements and assist in the manufactureof red corpuscles," said
Washington, appearing in the door, with a broadgrin on his good-natured face.
"Which, being interpreted," the professor said, "means, I suppose, thatwe had better eat something to keep our digestive apparatus in goodworking order?"
"Yo' done guessed it!" exclaimed the colored man, relapsing into hisordinary speech. "I'se got a meal all ready."
They agreed that they might not have another opportunity soon to partakeof food, so they all gathered about the table, on which Washington hadspread a good meal.
"Come on, let's go outside and view this new and strange land at closerquarters," the professor said, when they had satisfied their appetites."We can't see much from inside the ship."
Accordingly the heavy door in the side of the _Mermaid_ was slid back,and, for the first time the travelers stepped out on the surface of theland in the interior of the earth.
At first it seemed no different than the ordinary land to which theywere accustomed. But they soon found it had many strange attributes. Thequeer shifting and changing light, with the myriad of hues was one ofthem, but to this the adventurers had, by this time, become accustomed,though it was, none the less, a marvel to them. It was odd enough to seethe landscape blood red one instant, and a pale green the next, as itdoes when you look through differently colored glasses.
Then, too, they noticed that the grass and flowers grew much moreabundantly than in the outer part of the world. They saw clover six feethigh, and blades of grass even taller. In some places the growth ofgrass was so big that they were in danger of getting lost in it.
"If the grass is like this, what will the trees be?" asked Mark.
"There are some away over there," Jack replied. "We'll have to take asail over. They must be several hundred feet high."
"Well, at any rate, here's a little brook, and the water looks good todrink," went on Mark. "I'm thirsty, so here goes."
He hurried to where a stream was flowing sluggishly between grassybanks. The water was as clear as crystal, and Mark got down on his faceand prepared to sip some of the liquid up.
But, no sooner had his lips touched it, than he sprang up with a cry andstood gazing at the water.
"What's the matter?" asked Jack. "Hot?"
"No, it isn't hot," Mark replied, "but it isn't water. It's whitemolasses!"
"White molasses?" repeated the professor, coming up at that moment."What are you talking about?"
He stooped down and dipped his finger into the stream. He drew it upquickly, and there ran from it big drops that flowed as slowly as theextract of the sugarcane does in cold weather.
"You're about right, Mark," he said. "It's water but it's almost asthick as molasses." He touched his finger to his tongue. "It's good todrink, all right," he went on, "only it will be a little slow goingdown."
Then he dipped up a palm full, and let it trickle down his throat.
"It is the strangest water I ever saw," he added. "It must be that thelack of some peculiar property of air, which we have on the surface, hascaused this. I must make some notes on it," and he drew out pencil andpaper. He was about to jot down some facts when he was interrupted by acry from Washington.
"Come and see what's the matter with this stone!" he cried.