CHAPTER IV. THE MISSION OF SAMUEL BLOCK
Not far from the works at Sardis there was a large pond, which wasformed by the damming of a stream which at this point ran between highhills. In order to obtain a sufficient depth of water for his marineexperiments, Roland Clewe had built an unusually high and strongdam, and this body of water, which was called the lake, widened outconsiderably behind the dam and stretched back for more than half amile.
He was standing on the shore of this lake, early the next morning, incompany with several workmen, examining a curious-looking vessel whichwas moored near by, when Margaret Raleigh came walking towards him. Whenhe saw her he left the men and went to meet her.
"You could not wait until I came to your house to tell you what I wasgoing to do?" he said, smiling.
"No," she answered, "I could not. The Artesian ray kept me awake nearlyall night, and I felt that I must quiet my mind as soon as I could bygiving it something real and tangible to take hold of. Now what is itthat you are going to do? Anything in the ship line?"
"Yes," said he, "it is something in that line. But let us walk back alittle; I am not quite ready to tell the men everything. I have beenthinking," he said, as they moved together from the lake, "of thatpractical enterprise which we must take up and finish, in order tojustify ourselves to the public and those who have in various waysbacked up our enterprises, and I have concluded that the best thing Ican do is to carry out my plan of going to the north pole."
"What!" she exclaimed. "You are not going to try to do that--you,yourself?" And as she spoke, her voice trembled a little.
"Yes," said he, "I thought I would go myself, or else send Sammy."
She laughed.
"Ridiculous!" said she. "Send Sammy Block! You are joking?"
"No," said he, "I am not. I have been planning the expedition, and Ithink Sammy would be an excellent man to take charge of it. I mightgo part of the way--at least, far enough to start him--and I could soarrange matters that Sammy would have no difficulty in finishing theexpedition, but I do not think that I could give up all the time thatsuch an enterprise deserves. It is not enough to merely find the pole;one should stay there and make observations which would be of service."
"But if Sammy finishes the journey himself," she said, "his will be theglory."
"Let him have it," replied Clewe. "If my method of arctic explorationsolves the great problem of the pole, I shall be satisfied with theglory I get from the conception. The mere journey to the northern end ofthe earth's axis is of slight importance. I shall be glad to have Sammygo first, and have as many follow him as may choose to travel in thatdirection."
"Yet it is a great achievement," said she. "I would give much to be thefirst human being who has placed his foot upon the north pole."
"You would get it wet, I am afraid," said Clewe, smiling; "but that isnot the kind of glory I crave. If I can help a man to go there, I shallbe very willing to do so, provided he will make me a favorable report ofhis discoveries."
"Tell me all about it," she said--"when will you start? How many willgo?"
"There is some work to be done on that boat," said he. "Let me setthe men at it, and then we will go into the office, and I will layeverything before you."
When they were seated in a quiet little room attached to one of thelarge buildings, Roland Clewe made ready to describe his proposed arcticexpedition to his partner, in whose mind the wonderful enterprise hadentered, driving out the disturbing thoughts of the Artesian ray.
"You have told me about it before," said she, "but I am not quite surethat I have it all straight in my mind. You will go, I suppose, in asubmarine boat--that is, whoever goes will go in it?"
"Yes," said he, "for part of the way. My plan is to proceed in anordinary vessel as far north as Cape Tariff, taking the Dipsey, mysubmarine boat, in tow. The exploring party, with the necessary storesand instruments, will embark on the Dipsey, but before they start theywill make a telegraphic connection with the station at Cape Tariff. TheDipsey will carry one of those light, portable cables, which will bewound on a drum in her hold, and this will be paid out as she proceedson her way. Thus, you see, by means of the cable from Cape Tariff to St.Johns, we can be in continual communication with Sammy, no matter wherehe may go; for there is no reason to suppose that the ocean in thosenorthern regions is too deep to allow the successful placing of atelegraphic cable.
"My plan is a very simple one, but as we have not talked it over forsome time, I will describe it in full. All explorers who have tried toget to the north pole have met with the same bad fortune. They could notpass over the vast and awful regions of ice which lay between them andthe distant point at which they aimed; the deadly ice-land was alwaystoo much for them; they died or they turned back.
"When flying-machines were brought to supposed perfection, some twentyyears ago, it was believed that the pole would easily be reached,but there were always the wild and wicked winds, in which no steeringapparatus could be relied upon. We may steer and manage our vessels inthe fiercest storms at sea, but when the ocean moves in one great tidalwave our rudders are of no avail. Everything rushes on together, and ourstrongest ships are cast high upon the land.
"So it happened to the Canadian Bagne, who went in 1927 in the bestflying-ship ever made, and which it was supposed could be steadily keptupon its way without regard to the influence of the strongest winds;but a great hurricane came down from the north, as if square miles ofatmosphere were driving onward in a steady mass, and hurled him and hisship against an iceberg, and nothing of his vessel but pieces of woodand iron, which the bears could not eat, was ever seen again. This wasthe last polar expedition of that sort, or any sort; but my plan is soeasy of accomplishment--at least, so it seems to me--and so devoid ofrisk and danger, that it amazes me that it has never been tried before.In fact, if I had not thought that it would be such a comparatively easything to go to the pole, I believe I should have been there long ago;but I have always considered that it could be done at some season whenmore difficult and engrossing projects were not pressing upon me.
"What I propose to do is to sink down below the bottom of the ice in thearctic regions, and then to proceed in a direct line northward to thepole. The distance between the lower portions of the ice and the bottomof the Arctic Ocean I believe to be quite sufficient to allow me all theroom needed for navigation. I do not think it necessary to even considerthe contingency of the greatest iceberg or floe reaching the bottom ofthe arctic waters; consequently, without trouble or danger, the Dipseycan make a straight course for the extreme north.
"By means of the instruments the Dipsey will carry it will becomparatively easy to determine the position of the pole, and beforethis point is reached I believe she will find herself in an open sea,where she may rise to the surface. But if this should not be the case, acomparatively thin place in the ice will be chosen, and a great openingblown through it by means of an ascensional shell, several of whichshe will carry. She will then rise to the surface of the water in thisopening, and the necessary operations will be carried on."
"Mr. Clewe," said Margaret Raleigh, "the thing is so terrible I cannotbear to think of it. The Dipsey may have to sail hundreds and hundredsof miles under the ice, shut in as if an awful lid were put over her. Nomatter what happened down there, she could not come up and get out; itwould be the same thing as having a vast sky of ice stretched out aboveone. I should think the very idea of it would make people shudder anddie."
"Oh, it is not so bad as all that," answered Clewe. "There is nothingso dear to the marine explorer as plenty of water, and plenty of room tosail in, and under the ice the Dipsey will find all that."
"But there are so many dangers," said she, "that you cannot provideagainst in advance."
"That is very true," said he, "but I have thought so much about them,and I have studied and consulted so much about them, that I think I haveprovided against all the dangers we have reason to expect. To me thewhole business seems like very plain, straightfor
ward sailing."
"It may seem so here," said Margaret Raleigh, "but it will be quiteanother thing out under the arctic ice."
Preparations for the expedition were pushed forward as rapidly aspossible, and Clewe would have been delighted to make this voyage intothe unseen regions of the nether ice, but he knew that it was his dutynot to lose time or to risk his life when he was on the brink of adiscovery far more wonderful, far more important to the world, than thefinding of the pole. Therefore he determined that he would go with theexpedition no farther than the point where the ice would prevent thefarther progress of the vessel in which they would sail from New York.
It was not to be supposed that Roland Clewe intended to intrust such anexpedition to the absolute command of such a man as old Samuel Block.There would be on board the Dipsey an electrician who had long beenpreparing himself for this expedition; there were to be other scientificmen; there would be a submarine engineer, and such minor officers andassistants as would be necessary; but Clewe wanted some one who wouldrepresent him, who could be trusted to act in his place in case ofsuccess or of failure, who could be thoroughly depended upon shoulda serious emergency arise. Such a man was Samuel Block, and, somewhatstrange to say, old Sammy was perfectly willing to go to the pole.He was always ready for anything within bounds of his duty, and thosebounds included everything which Mr. Clewe wished done.
Sammy was an old-fashioned man, and therefore, in talking overarrangements with Roland Clewe, he insisted upon having a sailor in theparty.
"In old times," said he, "when I was a young man, nobody ever thought ofsettin' out on any kind of sea-voyagin' without havin' a sailor along.The fact is, they used to be pretty much all sailors."
"But in this expedition," said Clewe, "a sailor would be out of place.One of your old-fashioned mariners would not know what to do under thewater. Submarine voyaging is an entirely different profession from thatof the old-time navigator."
"I know all that," said Sammy. "I know how everything is a machinenowadays; but I shall never forget what a glorious thing it was to sailon the sea with the wind blowin' and the water curlin' beneath yourkeel. I lived on the coast, and used to go out whenever I had a chance,but things is mightily changed nowadays. Just think of that yacht-racein England the other day--a race between two electric yachts, with acouple of vessels ploughin' along to windward carryin' between 'em aboard fence thirty feet high to keep the wind off the yachts and give'em both smooth water and equal chance. I can't get used to that sort ofthing, and I tell you, sir, that if I am goin' on a voyage to the pole,I want to have a sailor along. If everything goes all right, we mustcome to the top of the water some time, and then we ought to have atleast one man who understands surface navigation."
"All right," said Clewe; "get your sailor."
"I've got my eye on him; he's a Cape Cod man, and he's not so very oldeither. When he was a boy people went about in ships with sails, andeven after he grew up Cap'n Jim was a great feller to manage a catboat;for things has moved slower on the Cape than in many parts of thecountry."
So Captain Jim Hubbell was engaged as sailor to the expedition; and whenhe came on to Sardis and looked over the Dipsey he expressed ageneral opinion of her construction and capabilities which indicated adisposition on his part to send her, and all others fashioned after herplan, to depths a great deal lower than ever had been contemplated bytheir inventors. Still, as he wanted very much to go to the pole if itwas possible that he could get there, and as the wages offered him wereexceedingly liberal, Captain Jim enlisted, in the party. His dutieswere to begin when the Dipsey floated on the surface of the sea like acommonsense craft.
A day or two before the expedition was ready to start, Roland Clewe wasvery much surprised one morning by a visit from Sammy's wife, Mrs. SarahBlock, who lost no time in informing him that she had made up her mindto accompany her husband on the perilous voyage he was about to make.
"You!" said Clewe. "You could not go on such an expedition as that!"
"If Sammy goes, I go," said Mrs. Block. "If it is dangerous for me, itis dangerous for him. I have been tryin' to get sense enough in his headto make him stay at home, but I can't do it; so I have made up my mindthat I go with him or he don't go. We have travelled together on topof the land, and we have travelled together on top of the water, and ifthere's to be travellin' under the water, why then we travel togetherall the same. If Sammy goes polin', I go polin'. I think he's a fool todo it; but if he's goin' to be a fool, I am goin' to be a fool. And asfor my bein' in the way, you needn't think of that, Mr. Clewe. I cancook for the livin', I can take care of the sick, and I can sew up thedead in shrouds."
"All right, Mrs. Block," said Clewe. "If you insist on it, and Sammy iswilling, you may go; but I will beg of you not to say anything about thethird class of good offices which you propose to perform for the party,for it might cast a gloom over some of the weaker-minded."
"Cast a gloom!" said Mrs. Block. "If all I hear is true, there will bea general gloom over everything that will be like havin' a blackpocket-handkercher tied over your head, and I don't know that anything Icould say would make that gloom more gloomier."
When Margaret Raleigh parted with Clewe on the deck of the Go Lightly,the large electric vessel which was to tow the Dipsey up to the limitsof navigable Northern waters, she knew he must make a long journey,nearly twice as far as the voyage to England, before she could hearfrom him; but when he arrived at Cape Tariff, a point far up on thenorthwestern coast of Greenland, she would hear from him; for from thispoint there was telegraphic communication with the rest of the world.There was a little station there, established by some commercialcompanies, and their agent was a telegraph-operator.
The passage from New York to Cape Tariff was an uneventful one, and whenClewe disembarked at the lonely Greenland station he was greeted by along message from Mrs. Raleigh, the principal import of which wasthat on no account must he allow himself to be persuaded to go on thesubmarine voyage of the Dipsey. On his part, Clewe had no desire to makeany change in his plans. During all the long voyage northward his hearthad been at Sardis.
The Dipsey was a comparatively small vessel, but it afforded comfortableaccommodations for a dozen or more people, and there was room for allthe stores which would be needed for a year. She was furnished, besides,with books and every useful and convenient contrivance which had beenthought desirable for her peculiar expedition.
When everything was ready, Roland Clewe took leave of the officers, thecrew, and the passenger on board the Dipsey, and the last-mentioned, asshe shook hands with him, shed tears.
"It seems to me like a sort of a congregational suicide, Mr. Clewe,"said she. "And it can't even be said that all the members are doin' itof their own accord, for I am not. If Sammy did not go, I would not, butif he does, I do, and there's the end of that; and I suppose it won'tbe very much longer before there's the end of all of us. I hope you willtell Mrs. Raleigh that I sent my best love to her with my last words;for even if I was to see her again, it would seem to me like beginningall over again, and this would be the end of this part of my life allthe same. What I hope and pray for is that none of the party may die ofany kind of a disease before the rest all go to their end together; forremains on board an under-water vessel is somethin' which mighty fewnerves would be able to stand."
When all farewells had been said, Mr. Clewe went on board the GoLightly, on the deck of which were her officers and men and the fewinhabitants of the station, and then the plate-glass hatchways of theDipsey were tightly closed, and she began to sink, until she entirelydisappeared below the surface of the water, leaving above her a littlefloating glass globe, connected with her by an electric wire.
As the Dipsey went under the sea, this little globe followed her on thesurface, and the Go Lightly immediately began to move after her. Thisarrangement had been made, as Clewe wished to follow the Dipsey for atime, in order to see if everything was working properly with her. Shekept on a straight course, flashing a light into th
e little globeevery now and then; and finally, after meeting some floating ice, sheshattered the globe with an explosion, which was the signal agreed uponto show that all was well, and that the Dipsey had started off alone onthe submarine voyage to the pole.
Roland Clewe gazed out over the wide stretch of dark-green waves andglistening crests, where nothing could be seen which indicated lifeexcept a distant, wearily-flapping sea bird, and then, turning his backupon the pole, he made preparations for his return voyage to New York,at which port he might expect to receive direct news from Sammy Blockand his companions.