CHAPTER XV
THE SHANGHAI MAKES TROUBLE
Remaining in the engine room long enough to see that all the motors andapparatus were working smoothly, Professor Henderson made his way tothe pilot house forward, where Mark and Jack were in charge of thesteering gears. The projectile could be started and stopped from there,as well as from the engine room, once the motor was set going.
"Well, boys, how does it feel to be in space once more?" asked thescientist.
"Fine," answered Mark. "But while I was shut up in that old house Ifeared I'd never have this chance again."
"It seems like old times again, to be flying through space," remarkedJack. "My! but we aren't making half the speed of which the projectileis capable. Why, we're only going about twenty miles a second," and hespoke as if that was a mere nothing.
"Twenty miles is some speed," observed Mark.
"The earth goes around the sun at the rate of nineteen miles a second,or about seventy-five times as fast as the swiftest cannon-ball, so yousee, Jack, you are 'going some,' as the boys say."
"Yes, but we went much faster when we went to Mars. Still, no matterhow fast we travel, you'd never realize it inside here."
This was true. So well balanced was the projectile, and so delicatelypoised was the machinery, that the terrifically fast rate of travel,rivalling that of the earth, was no more noticed than we, on thisglobe, notice our pace of nineteen miles a second around the sun.
"Everything seems to be all right," observed Professor Henderson, as helooked out of the plate-glass window of the pilot house into a sea ofrolling mist, which represented the ether, for they had soon passedthrough the atmosphere of the earth, which scientists estimate to betwo hundred miles in thickness.
"Are we going to move any faster than this?" asked Jack, who seemedpossessed of a speed mania.
"Not right away," replied Mr. Henderson. "Professor Roumann wants tothoroughly test the Cardite motor first. Then, when he finds that itworks all right, we may go faster. But we will be at the moon soonenough as it is. It is time we headed more directly on our proper way,though, so I think I will ask Mr. Roumann to step here and aid me ingetting the projectile on the right course. You boys had better remainalso and learn how it is done. You may need to know some time."
"I'll call the professor here, if he can leave the engine room," saidMark, and he found the German bending over some complicated apparatus.The scientist announced that the machines would run themselvesautomatically for a while, so he accompanied the lad back to thepilot-house.
There, consulting big charts of the heavens, and by making someintricate calculations, which the boys partly understood, the Germanand Mr. Henderson were able to locate the exact position of the moon,though that body was not then in sight, being behind the earth.
"That ought to bring us there inside of a week," announced Mr.Henderson, as he fastened the automatic steering apparatus in place."The projectile will now be held on a straight course, and I hope weshall not have to change it."
"Could anything cause us to swerve to one side?" asked Jack.
"Sure," replied Mark. "Don't you remember how, in the trip to Mars, wenearly collided with the comet? If we are in danger of hitting anotherone of those things, or even a meteor, we'll steer out of the way,won't we?"
"Of course. I forgot about that," admitted Jack.
"Yes," declared Professor Roumann, "we'll have to be on the lookout forwandering meteors or other stray heavenly bodies. But our instrumentswill give us timely warning of them. Now, I think we can leave theprojectile to herself while I make sure that all the machinery isrunning smoothly. You boys may stay here if you like, though thereisn't much to see."
There wasn't. It was totally unlike taking a trip on earth, where theever-varying scenery makes a journey pleasant. There was no landscapeto greet the eye now. It was even unlike a trip in a balloon, for inthat sort of air-craft, at least for a time, a glimpse of the earth canbe had. Now there was nothing but a white blanket of mist to be seen,which rolled this way and that. Occasionally it was dispelled, and thefull, golden sunlight bathed the projectile. The earth had long sincedropped out of sight, for it required only a few seconds to put the_Annihilator_ high up in a position where even the most intrepidballoonist had never ventured.
Mark and Jack sat for a few minutes in the pilot-house, looking outinto the ether. But they soon tired of seeing absolutely nothing.
"I wonder what we'll do when we get to the moon?" asked Jack of hischum.
"Why, I suppose you'll make a dive for a hatful of diamonds, won't you?That is, if you still believe that Martian newspaper account."
"I sure do."
The boys found the two professors busy adjusting some of the delicatescientific instruments with which they expected to make observations onthe trip, and after they reached the moon.
"What is your opinion, Professor Roumann, of the temperature at themoon's surface?" asked Mr. Henderson.
"I am in two minds about it," was the reply. "A few years ago, I see byan astronomy, Lord Rosse inferred from his observations that thetemperature rose at its maximum (or about three days after full moon)far above that of boiling water."
"Boiling water!" ejaculated Mark. "Wow! That won't be very nice. Idon't want to be boiled like a lobster!"
"Wait a moment," cautioned Mr. Roumann, with a smile. "Later, LordRosse's own investigations, and those of Langley, threw some doubts onthis. There is said to be no air blanket about the moon, as there isabout the earth, so that the moon loses heat as fast as it receives it;and it now seems more probable that the temperature never rises abovethe freezing point of water, just as is the case on our highestmountains."
"That's better," came from Jack. "We can stand a low temperature moreeasily than we can to be boiled; eh, Jack?"
"Sure. But I don't want to be frozen or boiled either, if I can helpit. Guess I'll wear my fur suit that we brought back from the NorthPole with us."
"I agree with you, Professor Roumann, about the temperature," announcedMr. Henderson, "so we must make up our minds to shiver, rather thanmelt. But we are prepared for that."
"What about there being no air on the moon?" asked Jack.
"Oh, we can manufacture our own oxygen," said Mark. "We can walk aroundwith an air tank on our shoulders, as we did when we went beneath thesurface of the ocean. Now, I guess----"
"Dinner am served in de dining car!" interrupted Washington White, hisblack face grinning cheerfully. He used to be a waiter in a Pullman,and he was proud of it. "First call fo' dinner!" he went on. "Part obit am boiled, part am roasted, laik I done heah yo' talkin' 'bout jestnow, an' part am frozed--dat's de ice cream," he added hastily, lestthere be a mistake about it.
"Well, that sounds good," observed Mark. "Come on, everybody," and heled the way to the dining cabin.
They had not been at the table more than a few minutes, and had begunon the "boiled" part of the meal, which was the soup, when from theengine room there came a curious, whining noise, as when an electricmotor slows up.
"What's that?" cried Professor Henderson, jumping up from his seat inalarm.
"Something wrong in the engine room," cried Mr. Roumann.
The two scientists, followed by the boys, hurried to where the variouspieces of apparatus were sending the projectile forward through space.Already there was an appreciable slackening of speed.
"The Cardite motor has stopped!" cried Mr. Roumann. "Something hashappened to it!"
"Can it be the result of the damage which that lunatic did?" asked Mr.Henderson.
"Perhaps," spoke Jack. "If I had him here----"
"We are falling!" shouted Mark, looking at an indicator which markedtheir speed and motion.
"Can't we start some other motor?" asked Jack.
At that instant from beneath the now silent Cardite machine there camea prolonged crow.
"My Shanghai rooster!" shouted Washington. "He am in dar!"
A second later the rooster scrambled out, scratching
vigorously. Grainsof corn were scattered about. The motor started up again, and theprojectile resumed its onward way.
"The rooster stopped it!" cried Jack. "He went under it to get somecorn, and he must have deranged one of the levers. Oh, you oldShanghai, you nearly gave us all heart disease!"
And the rooster crowed louder than before, while his colored owner"shooed" him out of the engine room. The trouble was over speedily, andthe _Annihilator_ was once more speeding toward the moon.