CHAPTER III
PREPARING FOR A VOYAGE
"Seems like rather an odd thing; doesn't it?" remarked Jack, as he andhis chum walked along.
"What?"
"This note."
"Oh, yes. But what made you think the writing looked like that of thecrazy machinist who tried to wreck the projectile?"
"Because I once saw some of the crazy letters he sent us, and he wrotejust like the man who gave Dick this note. But come on, let's hustle,and see what's up."
In a few minutes they came in sight of the white bridge, which wasabout a quarter of a mile down the road from the professor's house. Thetwo boys kept well together, and they were watching for a first sightof the man in waiting.
"See anything?" asked Jack.
"No; do you?"
"Not a thing. Wait until we get closer. He may be in the shadow. It'sdark now."
Almost as Jack spoke, the moon, which had been hidden behind a bank ofclouds, peeped out, making the scene comparatively bright. The boyspeered once more toward the bridge, and, as they did so, they saw afigure step from the shadows, stand revealed for an instant in themiddle of the structure, and then, seemingly after a swift glancetoward the approaching chums, the person darted off in the darkness.
"Did you see that?" cried Jack.
"Sure," assented Mark. "Guess he didn't want to wait for us. Why, he'srunning to beat the band!"
"Let's take after him," suggested Jack, and, nothing loath, Markassented. The two lads broke into a run, but, as they leaped forward,the man also increased his pace, and they could hear his feet poundingout a tattoo on the hard road.
The two youths reached the bridge, and sped across it. They glancedhastily on either side, thinking possibly the man might have had somecompanions, but no one was in sight, and the stranger himself was nowout of view around a bend in the highway.
"No use going any farther," suggested Jack, pulling up at the far sideof the bridge. "There are two roads around the bend, and we couldn'ttell which one he'd take. Besides, it might not be altogether safe torisk it."
Mark and Jack, on their return, told Professor Henderson and the Germanscientist something of their little excursion.
"But who could he have been?" asked Mr. Roumann. "Perhaps if you askthe boy who brought the note he can tell you."
"We'll do it in the morning," decided Mark.
"It's peculiar that he wanted Mark to meet him," spoke Amos Henderson."Have you any enemies that you know of, Mark?"
"Not a one. But what makes you think this man was an enemy, Professor?"
"From the fact that he ran when he saw you and Jack together. Evidentlyhe expected to get Mark out alone."
They discussed the matter for some time, and then the boys and thescientists retired to bed, ready to begin active preparations on themorrow, for their trip to the moon.
There was much to be done, but their experience in making otherwonderful trips, particularly the one to Mars, stood the travellers ingood stead. They knew just how to go to work.
To Washington was entrusted the task of preparing the food supply,since he was to act as cook. Andy Sudds was instructed to look afterthe clothing and other supplies, except those of a scientific nature,while the two young men were to act as general helpers to the twoprofessors.
As the _Annihilator_ has been fully described in the volume entitled,"Through Space to Mars," there is no need to dwell at any length on theconstruction of the projectile in which our friends hoped to travel tothe moon. Sufficient to say that it was a sort of enclosed airship,capable of travelling through space--that is, air or ether--at enormousspeed, that there were contained within it many complicated machines,some for operating the projectile, some for offence or defence againstenemies, such as electric guns, apparatus for making air or water, andscores of scientific instruments.
The _Annihilator_ was controlled either from the engine room, or from apilot house forward. As for the motive power it was, for the trip tothe moon, to be of that wonderful Martian substance, Cardite, whichwould operate the motors.
The projectile moved through space by the throwing off of waves ofenergy, similar to wireless vibrations, from large plates of metal, andthese plates were the invention of Professor Roumann.
Perhaps to some of my readers it may seem strange to speak so casuallyof a trip to the moon, but it must be remembered that our friends hadalready accomplished a much more difficult journey, namely, that toMars. So the moon voyage was not to daunt them.
Mars, as I have said, was thirty-five millions of miles away from theearth when the _Annihilator_ was headed toward it. To reach the moon,however, but 252,972 miles, at the most, must be traversed--a littlemore than a quarter of a million miles. As the distance from the earthto the moon varies, being between the figures I have named, and 221,614miles, with the average distance computed as being 238,840 miles, itcan readily be seen that at no time was the voyage to be considered ascomparing in distance with the one to Mars.
But there were other matters to be taken into consideration, and ourfriends began to ponder on them in the days during which they madetheir preparations.