CHAPTER XX
THE ADVENTURES IN COLORADO
When Professor Pludder, the President, and their companions on theaero-raft, saw the three men on the bluff motioning and shouting tothem, they immediately sought the means of bringing their craft to land.This did not prove to be exceedingly difficult, for there was aconvenient rock with deep water around it on which they could disembark.
The men ran down to meet them, and to help them ashore, exhibiting theutmost astonishment at seeing them there.
"Whar in creation did _you_ come from?" exclaimed one, giving theprofessor a pull up the bank. "Mebbe you're Cosmo Versal, and that's yerArk."
"I'm Professor Pludder, and this is the President of the United States."
"The President of the Un----See here, stranger, I'll take considerablefrom you, considering the fix yer in, but you don't want to go too far."
"It's true," asseverated the professor. "This gentleman is thePresident, and we've escaped from Washington. Please help the ladies."
"I'll help the ladies all right, but I'm blamed if I believe yer yarn.How'd you git here? You couldn't hev floated across the continent onthat thing."
"We came on the raft that you see," interrupted Mr. Samson. "We left theAppalachian Mountains two weeks ago."
"Well, by--it must be true!" muttered the man. "They couldn't hev comefrom anywhar else in that direction. I reckon the hull blamed continentis under water."
"So it is," said Professor Pludder, "and we made for Colorado, knowingthat it was the only land left above the flood."
All finally got upon the bluff, rejoiced to feel solid ground once morebeneath their feet. But it was a desolate prospect that they saw beforethem. The face of the land had been scoured and gullied by the pouringwaters, the vegetation had been stripped off, except where in hollows ithad been covered with new-formed lakes, some of which had drained offafter the downpour ceased, the water finding its way into the envelopingsea.
They asked the three men what had become of the other inhabitants, andwhether there was any shelter at hand.
"We've be'n wiped out," said the original spokesman. "Cosmo Versal hasdone a pretty clean job with his flood. There's a kind of a cover thatwe three hev built, a ways back yonder, out o' timber o' one kind andanother that was lodged about. But it wouldn't amount to much if therewas another cloudburst. It wouldn't stand a minute. It's good to sleepin."
"Are you the only survivors in this region?" asked the President.
"I reckon you see all thet's left of us. The' ain't one out o' a hundredthat's left alive in these parts."
"What became of them?"
"Swept off!" replied the man, with an expressive gesture--"and drowndedright out under the sky."
"And how did you and your companions escape?"
"By gitting up amongst some rocks that was higher'n the average."
"How did you manage to live--what did you have to eat?"
"We didn't eat much--we didn't hev much time to think o' eatin'. We hadone hoss with us, and he served, when his time come. After the skycleared we skirmished about and dug up something that we could manage toeat, lodged in gullies where the water had washed together what had beenin houses and cellars. We've got a gun and a little ammunition, and oncein a while we could kill an animal that had contrived to escapesomehow."
"And you think that there are no other human beings left alive anywherearound here?"
"I _know_ th' ain't. The's probably some up in the foothills, and aroundthe Pike. They had a better chance to git among rocks. We hed jest madeup our minds to go hunting for 'em when we ketched sight o' you, andthen we concluded to stay and see who you was."
"I'm surprised that you didn't go sooner."
"We couldn't. There was a roarin' torrent coming down from the mountainsthat cut us off. It's only last night that it stopped."
"Well, it's evident that we cannot stay here," said Professor Pludder."We must go with these men toward the mountains. Let us take what's leftof the compressed provisions out of the raft, and then we'll eat a goodmeal and be off."
The three men were invited to share the repast, and they ate with anappetite that would have amused their hosts if they had not been soanxious to reserve as much as possible of their provisions for futurenecessities.
The meal finished, they started off, their new friends aiding to carryprovisions, and what little extra clothing there was. The aspect of thecountry they traversed affrighted them. Here and there were partiallydemolished houses or farm structures, or cellars, choked with debris ofwhat had once been houses.
Farm implements and machinery were scattered about and half buried inthe torrent-furrowed land. In the wreck of one considerable villagethrough which they passed they found a stone church, and several stonehouses of considerable pretensions, standing almost intact as to walls,but with roofs, doors, and windows smashed and torn off.
It was evident that this place, which lay in a depression of the land,had been buried by the rushing water as high as high as the top storiesof the buildings. From some of the sights that they saw they shrankaway, and afterward tried to forget them.
Owing to the presence of the women and children their progress wasslower than it might overwise have been. They had great difficulty incrossing the course of the torrent which their companions had describedas cutting them off from the foothills of the Pike's Peak range.
The water had washed out a veritable canyon, a hundred or more feet deepin places, and with ragged, precipitous walls and banks, which they hadto descend on one side and ascend on the other. Here the skill and localknowledge of their three new-found friends stood them in good stead.There was yet enough water in the bottom of the great gully to compelthem to wade, carrying the women and children.
But, just before nightfall, they succeeded in reaching a range of rockyheights, where they determined to pass the night. They managed to make afire with brush that had been swept down the mountain flanks and hadremained wedged in the rocks, and thus they dried their soaked garments,and were able to do some cooking, and to have a blaze to give them alittle heat during the night, for the air turned cold after thedisappearance of the sun.
When the others had sunk into an uneasy slumber, the President andProfessor Pludder sat long, replenishing the fire, and talking of whatwould be their future course.
"I think," said the professor, "that we shall find a considerablepopulation alive among the mountains. There is nothing in Colorado belowfour thousand feet elevation, and not much below five thousand. Thegreat inner 'parks' were probably turned into lakes, but they will drainoff, as the land around us here has done already.
"Those who managed to find places of comparative shelter will nowdescend into the level lands and try to hunt up the sites of theirhomes. If only some plants and grain have been preserved they can, aftera fashion, begin to cultivate the soil."
"But there _is_ no soil," said the President, shuddering at therecollection of the devastation he had witnessed. "It has all beenwashed off."
"No," replied the professor, "there's yet a good deal in the low places,where the water rested."
"But it is now the middle of winter."
"Reckoned by the almanac it is, but you see that the temperature is thatof summer, and has been such for months. I think that this is due insome way to the influence of the nebula, although I cannot account forit. At any rate it will be possible to plant and sow.
"The whole body of the atmosphere having been raised four thousand feet,the atmospheric conditions here now are virtually the same as at theformer sea-level. If we can find the people and reassure them, we musttake the lead in restoring the land to fertility, and also in thereconstruction of homes."
"Suppose the flood should recommence?"
"There is no likelihood of it."
"Then," said the President, putting his face between his hands andgazing sadly into the fire, "here is all that remains of the mightiestnation of the world, the richest, the most populous--and we are to buildup
out of this remnant a new fatherland."
"This is not the only remnant," said Professor Pludder. "One-quarter, atleast, of the area of the United States is still above sea-level. Thinkof Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, the larger part of California,Wyoming, a part of Montana, two-thirds of Idaho, a half of Oregon andWashington--all above the critical level of four thousand feet, and allexcept the steepest moutainsides can be reclaimed.
"There is hope for our country yet. Remember that the climate of thisentire region will now be changed, since the barometric isobars havebeen lifted up, and the line of thirty inches pressure now meets theedge of the Colorado plateau. There may be a corresponding change in therainfall and in all the conditions of culture and fertility."
"Yes," sighed the President, "but I cannot, I cannot withdraw my mindfrom the thought of the _millions, millions, millions_ who haveperished!"
"I do not say that we should forget them," replied Professor Pludder;"Heaven forbid! But I do say that we must give our attention to thosethat remain, and turn our faces steadily toward the future."
"Abiel," returned the President, pressing the professor's hand, "you areright. My confidence in you was shaken, but now I follow you again."
Thus they talked until midnight, and then got a little rest with theothers. They were up and off at break of day, and as they mounted higherthey began to encounter immense rocks that had come tumbling down fromabove.
"How can you talk of people escaping toward the mountains if they had toencounter these?" demanded the President.
"Some of these rocks have undoubtedly been brought down by thetorrents," Professor Pludder replied, "but I believe that the greaternumber fell earlier, during the earthquakes that accompanied the firstinvasions of the sea."
"But those earthquakes may have continued all through."
"I do not think so. We have felt no trembling of the earth. I believethat the convulsions lasted only for a brief period, while the rockswere yielding to the pressure along the old sea-coast. After a littlethe crust below adjusted itself to the new conditions. And even if therocks fell while people were trying to escape from the flood below, theymust, like the water, have followed the gorges and hollow places, whilethe fugitives would, of course, keep upon the ridges."
Whatever perils they may have encountered, people had certainly escapedas the professor had averred. When the party, in the middle of the day,were seated at their lunch, on an elevated point from which they couldsee far over the strange ocean that they had left behind them, while thesouthern buttresses of Pike's Peak rose steeply toward the north, theydiscovered the first evidence of the existence of refugees in themountains. This was a smoke rising over an intervening ridge, whichtheir new companions declared could be due to nothing less than a largecamp-fire.
They hastened to finish their meal, and then climbed the ridge. As soonas they were upon it they found themselves looking down into a broad,shallow canyon, where there were nearly twenty rudely constructed cabins,with a huge fire blazing in the midst of the place, and half a dozenred-shirted men busy about it, evidently occupied in the preparation ofthe dinner of a large party.
Their friends recognized an acquaintance in one of the men below andhailed him with delight. Instantly men, women, and children came runningout of the huts to look at them, and as they descended into thisimprovised village they were received with a hospitality that was almosthilarious.
The refugees consisted of persons who had escaped from the lower landsin the immediate vicinity, and they were struck dumb when told that theywere entertaining the President of the United States and his family.
The entire history of their adventures was related on both sides. Therefugees told how, at the commencement of the great rain, when it becameevident that the water would inundate their farms and buildings, theyloaded themselves with as many provisions as they could carry, and, inspite of the suffocating downpour that filled the air, managed to fighttheir way to the ridge overhanging the deep cut in which they were nowencamped.
Hardly a quarter of those who started arrived in safety. They shelteredthemselves to the number of about thirty, in a huge cavern, which faceddown the mountain, and had a slightly upward sloping floor, so that thewater did not enter. Here, by careful economy, they were able to eke outtheir provisions until the sky cleared, after which the men, being usedto outdoor labor and hunting, contrived to supply the wants of theforlorn little community.
They managed to kill a few animals, and found the bodies of othersrecently killed, or drowned. Later they descended into the lowlands, asthe water ran off, and searching among the ruins of their houses foundsome remnants of supplies in the cellars and about the foundations ofthe barns. They were preparing to go down in a body and seek tore-establish themselves on the sites of their old homes, when thePresident's party came upon them.
The meeting with these refugees was but the first of a series of similarencounters on the way along the eastern face of the Pike's Peak range.In the aggregate they met several hundred survivors who had establishedthemselves on the site of Colorado Springs, where a large number ofhouses, standing on the higher ground, had escaped.
They had been soaked with water, descending through the shattered roofsand broken windows, and pouring into the basements and cellars. Thefugitives came from all directions, some from the caverns on themountains, and some from the rocks toward the north and east. Aconsiderable number asserted that they had found refuge in the Garden ofthe Gods.
As near as could be estimated, about a quarter of the populationremained alive.
The strong points of Professor Pludder now, once more, came outconspicuously. He proved himself an admirable organizer. He explored allthe country round, and enheartened everybody, setting them to work torepair the damage as much as possible.
Some horses and cattle were found which, following their instincts, hadmanaged to escape the flood. In the houses and other buildings yetstanding a great deal of food and other supplies were discovered, sothat there was no danger of a famine. As he had anticipated, the soilhad not all been washed away from the flat land, and he advised theinhabitants to plant quick-growing seeds at once.
He utilized the horses to send couriers in all directions, some goingeven as far as Denver. Everywhere virtually the same conditions werefound--many had escaped and were alive, only needing the guidance of aquicker intelligence, and this was supplied by the advice which theprofessor instructed his envoys to spread among the people. He sought tocheer them still more by the information that the President was amongthem, and looking out for their welfare.
One thing which his couriers at last began to report to him was a causeof surprise. They said that the level of the water was rapidly falling.Some who had gone far toward the east declared that it had gone downhundreds of feet. But the professor reflected that this was impossible,because evaporation could not account for it, and he could not persuadehimself that so much water could have found its way into the interior ofthe crust.
He concluded that his informants had allowed their hopes to affect theireyesight, and, strong as usual in his professional dogmas, he made nopersonal examination. Besides, Professor Pludder was beginning to beshaken in his first belief that all trouble from the nebula was at anend. Once having been forced to accept the hypothesis that a waterynebula had met the earth, he began to reflect that they might not bethrough with it.
In any event, he deemed it wise to prepare for it if it _should_ comeback. Accordingly he advised that the population that remained shouldconcentrate in the stronger houses, built of stone, and that everyeffort should be made to strengthen them further and to make the roofsas solid as possible. He also directed that no houses should be occupiedthat were not situated on high ground, surrounded with slopes that wouldgive ready flow to the water in case the deluging rain shouldrecommence.
He had no fixed conviction that it would recommence, but he was uneasy,owing to his reflections, and wished to be on the safe side. He sentsimilar instructions as far as
his horsemen could reach.
The wisdom of his doubts became manifest about two weeks after thearrival of the President's party. Without warning the sky, which hadbeen perfectly blue and cloudless for a month, turned a sickly yellow.Then mists hid the head, and in a little while the entire outline ofPike's Peak, and after that a heavy rain began.
Terror instantly seized the people, and at first nobody ventured out ofdoors. But as time went on and the rain did not assume the proportionsof the former _debacle_, although it was very heavy and continuous, hoperevived. Everybody was on the watch for a sudden clearing up.
Instead of clearing, however, the rain became very irregular, gushing attimes in torrents which were even worse than the original downpour, butthese tremendous gushes were of brief duration, so that the water had anopportunity to run off the higher ground before the next downpouroccurred.
This went on for a week, and then the people were terrified at findingthat water was pouring up through all the depressions of the land,cutting off the highlands from Pike's Peak with an arm of the sea. Itwas evident that the flood had been rapidly rising, and if it shouldrise but little higher they would be caught in a trap. The inland sea,it was clear, had now invaded the whole of Colorado to the feet of themountains, and was creeping up on them.
Just at this time a series of earthquakes began. They were not severe,but were continuous. The ground cracked open in places, and some houseswere overturned, but there were no wall-shattering shocks--only acontinual and dreadful trembling, accompanied by awful subterraneansounds.
This terrible state of affairs had lasted for a day before a remarkablediscovery was made, which filled many hearts with joy, although itseemed to puzzle Professor Pludder as much as it rejoiced him.
The new advance of the sea was arrested! There could be no question ofthat, for too many had anxiously noted the points to which the water hadattained.
We have said that Professor Pludder was puzzled. He was seeking, in hismind, a connection between the seismic tremors and the cessation of theadvance of the sea. Inasmuch as the downpour continued, the flood oughtstill to rise.
He rejected as soon as it occurred to him the idea that the earth couldbe drinking up the waters as fast as they fell, and that the tremblingwas an accompaniment of this gigantic deglutition.
Sitting in a room with the President and other members of the party fromWashington, he remained buried in his thoughts, answering inquiries onlyin monosyllables. Presently he opened his eyes very wide and along-drawn "A-ah!" came from his mouth. Then he sprang to his feet andcried out, but only as if uttering a thought aloud to himself, thestrange word:
_"Batholite!"_