CHAPTER IX
Tricks of Refraction
The doctor figured out that we should be quite insensible to any weightwhen we were seventy-five thousand miles from the Earth. At fiftythousand miles I would still weigh a pound, and when we had finished thefirst million miles, the entire projectile, with its two occupants andall its dead weight, would weigh considerably less than an ounce. Thatwas a mere start on the enormous trip ahead of us; but when thatdistance was reached, we could no longer count upon terrestrial gravityfor accelerating our speed. We must travel with our accumulatedmomentum, unless by that time the Sun should have taken the place of theEarth, and with his vaster forces continue to repel us Marsward.
As we sat talking the doctor grew weary, and soon unconsciously droppedasleep. I left him to enjoy his rest, and, tossing a scrap of ham boneto Two-spot, I went up to take my place at the telescope.
Mars seemed to be exactly in the right part of the field. I surveyed thestarry stretches ahead with a feeling a little akin to fear. I wasqueerly affected by the vast expanse of loneliness outside, and by thedeathly quiet prevailing both without and within. There was not theslightest whizzing or whistling now. We might be hanging perfectlymotionless in space for all I knew. The batteries made no sound either.I could hear only the low, regular breathing of the doctor as he slept,and the slight crunching of Two-spot on his bone. Presently I thought oflooking for the danger lights, but I looked through the telescopeinstead, and saw the little red planet in his proper place.
What a vast distance we were from any planet! If anything were to happento us, no one on Earth or in the heavens would ever know of it. I hadnever been homesick, but a very little would have made me Earthsick justthen. I did not like the upper end of the projectile because I could notlook back at the home planet. I wondered if it was all dark back thatway, or if those warning lights had begun to appear. That idea seemed tohaunt me. I touched the steering wheel just a little while I kept myeyes on Mars. He moved slightly in the field at once. Then I turned thewheel back until he took his former place. It was reassuring to know howeasily the projectile minded her great rudder, which was now fullyextended like an enormous wing. This made me feel that we were mastersof the situation, that all this vast space was as nothing to us, thatany planet in the heavens must mind us, and that though Earth wasdriving us away, she must draw us back if we willed it. More than that,she would warn us of all dangers. Perhaps she was sending that warningnow. I had promised to look out for it. I felt that I must go down. Icrept softly past the doctor and stooped over the port-hole. My eyes hadscarcely found the Earth in the darkness when I drew back quickly andclapped my hand over my mouth to prevent a cry escaping me. Then Ilooked again more closely. There was no small illuminated portion of thesurface this time, but a great smear of light just outside the edge ofthe Earth. It was of a dull red colour, with rainbow tints around theedges, and was much the shape of a great umbrella held just above onequarter of her surface to westward.
I gave the steering wheel in my compartment a sharp turn in thedirection which should cause the light to disappear. Then I crouched andlooked again, but instead of being reduced in size the light broadenedand swelled. It was as if one edge of the umbrella were left against theEarth's surface, and then the umbrella was being turned gradually arounduntil it faced me and formed an enormous disc, apparently a third as bigas the Earth. Then, as it slowly moved outward, its edge seemed tocleave to the Earth's, as two drops of water do when about to separate.Finally, it detached itself entirely, and stood as a great muddy red orba little to the west of and above the Earth. It filled me with dismay tosee all this happen after I had turned the rudder in the direction whichshould have corrected our course. In desperation I gave the wheel anadditional hard turn and looked again. At last the great red patch wasshrinking; slowly it diminished, and finally disappeared. But just as Iwas breathing a sigh of relief, I noticed the white sickle of light onthe east side that I had seen before; only it was increasing mostthreateningly now. Yes, it was assuming the same umbrella shape anddetaching itself a little from the eastern edge of the Earth. There wasstill a narrow rim of bright white light on the Earth, and this dimmerumbrella shape was faintly separated from its edge. Its outlines weremarked by flashes of rainbow colours, as had been the case on the otherside. I sprang to the wheel and gave it several frantic turns back theother way. Then I ran up to the telescope for a hurried view, and Marswas nowhere to be seen! I hastened back to the wheel and gave it avicious additional turn. I was determined to prevent this umbrella fromopening at me! And true enough it ceased enlarging, and gradually shrankand settled back upon the surface of the Earth. Then slowly it faded anddisappeared, as it had done before when the doctor had corrected thecourse. I eased back the wheel and went to look for Mars again, but hewas not in the field. As I returned I brushed unconsciously against thedoctor in my excitement. He roused himself, sat up, and watched mepeering out of the port-hole. I was gazing at a new appearance.
"There it is again!" I cried, for below the Earth and to westward a palewhite disc came into view all at once, not gradually, as if emergingfrom behind the Earth, but springing out complete and detached.
"Doctor!" I said, catching him by the arm and pulling him down to theport-hole, "what is that?"
"That? That is the Moon, my boy. Has it excited you so much?"
"Yes; I have been trying to dodge it. But you had better look to thewheel," I cried.
He ran up to the telescope, and I heard him exclaim, "_Donnerwetter!_"half under his breath. But with a few careful turns of the wheel hefound the planet again, and moved him to the right part of the field.Meanwhile the Full Moon shone on us with its pale glimmer. But a thinrim of it next to the Earth gleamed brightly with rich silver light.
"I thought you said we had started in the dark of the Moon. I thought itwas behind the Earth," I interposed.
"That is the New Moon just emerging. It will probably not be seen on theEarth until to-morrow night, but as we are at a greater distance we seeit first," replied the doctor.
"But that is not a New Moon, it is a Full Moon, which should not be seenfor fourteen days yet," I objected.
"Pardon me, it _is_ a New Moon," he insisted. "That inner rim ofbrightness is all the sunlight she reflects. The paler glimmer isEarth-light, which she reflects. When she is really a Full Moon, shewill be perfectly dark to us."
Then I explained to him the first umbrella appearance, and its gradualswelling and final disappearance.
"Rainbow colours around the edge and a gradual changing of the shape,you say? That means refraction. The Earth's atmosphere has been playingtricks on you. The umbrella of dull red light was a refracted view ofthe Moon before she really came into sight. Rays of light from thehidden Moon were bent around to you. Then, as she gradually moved frombehind the Earth, her appearance was magnified by the convex lens formedby the atmosphere, bent over that planet. Presently it diminished andwent out altogether, you say?"
"Yes, but that was because I steered away from her," I replied.
"No; you could hardly lose her so easily," he answered. "Did you evertry holding an object behind a water-bottle or a gold-fish jar? There isa place near the edge of the jar where a thing cannot be seen, thoughthe glass and water are perfectly transparent. The rays of light fromthe object are bent around, through the glass and water, away from theeyes of the observer. It was like that with the Moon when shedisappeared. She was really drawing out from the Earth all the time.Finally, when her light passed beyond the atmosphere altogether, shebecame suddenly visible in a different place and shining with anothercolour. What we see now is the real Moon in her true place. The otherappearances were all tricks of refraction."
"But when I had turned away," I explained, "there came a thin rim ofbright light on the other side of the Earth, and a gradually appearingumbrella shape there too."
"Ah, then you steered far enough out of your course to see part of theilluminated surface of the Earth. That was the real danger ligh
t. And ifit began to assume the umbrella shape, detached from the Earth, that wasdue to atmospheric refraction of sunlight. This great shadow we aretravelling in has an illuminated core, which we shall encounter when wehave proceeded a little further. I tell you of it now, so it may notgive you another shock. Have you ever noticed the small bright spotwhich illuminates the centre of the shadow cast by a glass of water?That is partly the same as the core of light which exists in the heartof this shadow. Rays from the sun, passing on all sides of the Earth,are refracted through the atmosphere and bent inward. You must havesteered over into some of these rays just now, and then turned back fromthem. Somewhat farther on all these refracted rays will meet at a commoncentre, which they will illuminate, and we shall have an oasis ofrainbow-tinged sunlight in this great desert of shadow. The sun willthen appear to us to be an enormous circle of dull light entirelysurrounding the Earth."
"I don't fancy running into that at all," said I. "Can't we avoid it bysteering out?"
"Avoid it!" exclaimed the doctor. "We must investigate it, andphotograph the peculiar appearance of the sun. Light seems to have moreterrors for you than anything else just now. You must get over yourrush-and-do tendency; you must stifle your emotions and impulses, andlearn to think of things in a more calm and scientific manner."
"But that is not so easy for me, Doctor. Whenever I am left alone, afeeling of dread possesses me. I am used to having many people, bustlingnoises, and confused movement all about me. The silence of Space stiflesme, and the loneliness of the ether oppresses and overcomes mestrangely."
"I prescribe a change of air for you," answered the doctor. "You will dobetter in a rarer atmosphere. Let us send what we have been breathingback to Whiting, and make a new one to suit ourselves."