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29 chapters
CHAPTER IWASHINGTON BACKS OUT
CHAPTER IWASHINGTON BACKS OUT
“Washington! I say Washington!” Throughout a big shed, filled for the most part with huge pieces of machinery, echoed the voice of Professor Amos Henderson. He did not look up from a small engine over which he was bending. “Washington! Where are you? Why don’t you answer me?” From somewhere underneath an immense pile of iron, steel and aluminum came the voice of a colored man. “Yas sir, Perfesser, I’se goin’ t’ saggasiate my bodily presence in yo’ contiguous proximity an’ attend t’ yo’ immediate
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CHAPTER IITHE FLYING MERMAID
CHAPTER IITHE FLYING MERMAID
“Here! Stop him!” cried Professor Henderson. “Don’t let him get away. We still need his help to get the ship in shape. He needn’t be frightened. We’re not going to start at once.” Mark and Jack ran after Washington, whose progress was somewhat impeded because he kept looking back as if he feared the new ship was chasing him. “Come on back!” said Mark. “There’s no danger, and if there was we’re not going to start to-day.” “Ain’t yo’ foolin’ me?” asked Washington, pausing and looking doubtfully at
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CHAPTER IIIWASHINGTON DECIDES
CHAPTER IIIWASHINGTON DECIDES
“We must catch that cylinder!” the professor exclaimed. “Some one may find it when it comes down and analyze the gas. Then he would discover how to make it. The cylinder must come down!” “Don’t see how we can proximate ourselves inter th’ vicinity of it lessen we delegate th’ imperial functions of ornithological specimens t’ some member of this here party,” observed Washington. “If you mean we can’t catch that there contraption unless we turn into birds I’ll show you that you’re mistaken!” cried
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CHAPTER IVWHAT DID MARK SEE?
CHAPTER IVWHAT DID MARK SEE?
“Well, I’m glad you’ve decided at last,” the professor remarked. “Now come inside and we’ll see how the ship works.” Once over his fright, Washington made himself at home on the craft he had helped build. He went from one room to another and observed the engine. “She certainly am workin’” he observed with pride. “Are we still goin’ up, Perfessor?” “Still mounting,” replied Mr. Henderson. “We are now three hundred feet above the earth,” he added as he glanced at a registering gage. The great air
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CHAPTER VATTACKED BY A WHALE
CHAPTER VATTACKED BY A WHALE
But Mark was certain it was nothing like that, though a careful search failed to reveal anything or any person near the ship. It was too dark to examine for footprints, and even Mark, after taking a look all about, felt he might have been deceived by shadows. Still he was a little nervous, and could hardly sleep for imagining what the thing he saw could have been. The next day every one was so busy that no one, not even Mark, recalled the little excitement of the night before. Shortly after noon
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CHAPTER VITHE CYCLONE
CHAPTER VITHE CYCLONE
It was only in the nick of time, for a second later and the big mammal of the ocean would have struck the ship and split it from stem to stern. Higher and higher into the air mounted the Flying Mermaid , while in the water below, the whale, incensed by missing his prey, was lashing the waves to foam. “Well, that was a narrow squeak; as close as I ever care to come to it!” exclaimed Andy as he let go of the steel rail to which he was clinging and entered the conning tower. “I had no idea of hitti
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CHAPTER VIIA QUEER SAIL
CHAPTER VIIA QUEER SAIL
Now that the fear and worriment was over they all began to feel hungry, and, while Mark and Jack took charge of the conning tower Washington got breakfast. The professor seemed preoccupied during the meal, and several times, when Mark spoke to him, he did not reply. “I wonder if he is worried about something, or is thinking of something which seems to be concealed in the storeroom,” the boy thought. But, after a while, the professor seemed to be more like himself. He was busy over several maps a
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CHAPTER VIIITHE FLYING MERMAID DISABLED
CHAPTER VIIITHE FLYING MERMAID DISABLED
“We’ll save you!” shouted Mr. Henderson, who was on the deck, while Mark was steering the craft. “Hold on a few minutes longer and we’ll be alongside!” “They’re real! They’re real!” some of those aboard the burning ship could be heard to shout. Evidently more than one of them had taken the Mermaid for a delusion of their fear-crazed brain. “They are real persons!” they called again and again. “They are coming to save us!” Mr. Henderson ran his ship as near the burning craft as he dared. Then he
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CHAPTER IXTHE MUTINY
CHAPTER IXTHE MUTINY
Mark was awakened that night by feeling some one trying to turn him over. At first he thought it was Jack, and sleepily muttered that he wanted to be let alone. “Sorry I can’t oblige ye, my hearty!” exclaimed a rough voice in his ear, “but I got particular orders t’ tie you up!” At that Mark tried to sit up, but he found he could not. He discovered that he was closely bound with many turns of a rope, while in front of his bunk stood one of the rescued sailors. “There,” said the man, with a final
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CHAPTER XFOOLING THEIR ENEMIES
CHAPTER XFOOLING THEIR ENEMIES
Mark hurried into the corridor, taking care to close the door after him, so Tony could get no glimpse of the mate who had risked so much to save his friends. But he need not have been alarmed for the leader of the mutineers was too excited over the stopping of the gas apparatus to give any heed to who was in with the captives. “Do you think you can fix it?” he asked the boy. “I guess so,” Mark replied confidently. “If I can’t there is no danger, for we will fall gradually and land in the water.”
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CHAPTER XIMYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS
CHAPTER XIMYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS
The voice of the mate echoed through the Mermaid . Those on deck heard it, as did Tony in the engine room, where he was vainly trying to understand the complicated machinery. An instant later there sounded from beneath the ship a series of splashes. More sailors were leaping from the deck of the craft to the ocean. The distance was not great, particularly as they all landed in water. “Quick!” cried the mate to a group of sailors that hesitated before taking the jump. “The ship may blow up any mi
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CHAPTER XIITHE BIG HOLE
CHAPTER XIITHE BIG HOLE
“Something has gone wrong!” exclaimed the professor as he jumped up. He reached the engine room ahead of any one else, and when the two boys got there they found him busy twisting wheels and shifting levers. “Anything serious?” asked Jack. “It’s the gas machine again,” Mr. Henderson replied. “It broke where we fixed it. However it doesn’t matter. I was going to lower the ship anyhow, as I want to approach the island from the water. We will go down a little sooner than I counted on.” The disablin
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CHAPTER XIIIDOWN INTO THE EARTH
CHAPTER XIIIDOWN INTO THE EARTH
It was now noon, but the adventurers did not think of dinner in the excitement of approaching the mysterious island. The speed of the ship was increased that they might the more quickly come to it. As they approached they could see the masses of vapor more plainly, and it appeared that some great commotion must be going on inside the big hole, since clouds of steam arose. “I only hope it doesn’t prove too hot for us,” observed the professor. “However, I provided a water jacket for the ship, and
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CHAPTER XIVMANY MILES BELOW
CHAPTER XIVMANY MILES BELOW
“Don’t be alarmed,” spoke the calm voice of the professor. “I have only turned off the electrics. I want to switch on the search lights, to see if we can learn anything about our position.” As he spoke he turned a switch, and, the gloom below the ship, as the boys could see by glimpses from the floor-window, was pierced by a dazzling glare. In the bottom of the Mermaid were set a number of powerful electric arc lights with reflectors, constructed to throw the beams downward. The professor had bu
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CHAPTER XVIN THE STRANGE DRAUGHT
CHAPTER XVIN THE STRANGE DRAUGHT
The boys ran to attend to the engines and apparatus to which they had been assigned in view of this emergency. The professor, Washington, Bill, Tom and Andy, who had kept to themselves since the descent, came running out of the small cabin where they usually sat, and wanted to know what it was all about. “We may hit something, in spite of all precautions,” Mr. Henderson remarked. “Slow down the ship.” The Mermaid was, accordingly checked in her downward flight, by a liberal use of the gas and th
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CHAPTER XVITHE NEW LAND
CHAPTER XVITHE NEW LAND
“What is it? Tell us!” exclaimed Jack, almost in his last breath, for, a few seconds later he too toppled over senseless. Then Washington went down, while Andy, Bill and Tom succumbed to the terrible heat. Mark felt his head swimming. His eyes were almost bulging from their sockets. He dimly remembered trying to force himself to go to the storeroom and see what was there. He started toward it with that intention, but fell half way to it. As he did so he saw something which impressed itself on hi
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CHAPTER XVIIA STRANGE COUNTRY
CHAPTER XVIIA STRANGE COUNTRY
They all ran to the port holes, which were openings in the side of the ship. They were fitted with thick, double glass, and covered on the outside with steel shutters. These shutters were worked by a single lever from the engine room, so that one person could open or close them in a second or two. Washington, by accident, it appeared later, had slid back the protecting pieces of steel, and the rest followed. As the adventurers looked from the glass ports they saw that the light which had flooded
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CHAPTER XVIIICAUGHT BY A STRANGE PLANT
CHAPTER XVIIICAUGHT BY A STRANGE PLANT
“Washington is in trouble!” exclaimed Mr. Henderson. Followed by the two boys he ran to where the colored man stood in a stooping position over a small pile of stones. “What is it? Has something bit you?” asked the scientist, as he came up on the run. “No, but I can’t git this stone up!” Washington said. “Look at what a little stone it is, but I can’t lift it. Something must have happened to me. Maybe some one put th’ evil eye on me! Maybe I’m bewitched!” “Nonsense!” exclaimed the professor, “wh
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CHAPTER XIXTHE BIG PEACH
CHAPTER XIXTHE BIG PEACH
Jack soon recovered from his remarkable experience. The terrible plant that had nearly eaten him alive was a mass of cut-up vegetable matter which attracted a swarm of insects. Most of them were ants, but such large ones the boys had never seen before, and the professor said they exceeded in size anything he had read about. Some of them were as large as big rats. They bit off large pieces of the fallen plant and carried them to holes in the ground which were big enough for Washington to slip his
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CHAPTER XXOVERHAULING THE SHIP
CHAPTER XXOVERHAULING THE SHIP
“Keep together!” shouted the professor. “It will not do to become lost now. We are close to the ship, and will soon be there. Come after me.” It was more by following the sound of the scientist’s voice, than by any sight which the others could get of him, that they managed to trail along behind. They reached the ship in safety, however, and entered. There was no sound as of beasts or insects within, and, though Mark felt a little apprehensive on account of what he had seen, he and the others as
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CHAPTER XXITHE FISH THAT WALKED
CHAPTER XXITHE FISH THAT WALKED
It was with no little apprehension that the professor prepared to take his first flight aboard the ship in the realms of the new world. He knew little or nothing of the conditions he might meet with, the density of the atmosphere, or how the Mermaid would behave under another environment than that to which she was accustomed. Yet he felt it was necessary to make a start. They would have to attempt a flight sooner or later, and Mr. Henderson was not the one to delay matters. So, the last adjustme
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CHAPTER XXIITHE SNAKE-TREE
CHAPTER XXIITHE SNAKE-TREE
They managed to make a good meal of the food supplies they had brought along, and as a dessert Washington made some peach short-cake from the slices of the giant fruit they had found the day before. Just as they finished supper it got very dark, but, in about an hour, the moonbeams, as the travelers called them, came up, and illuminated the lake with a weird light. As the machinery of the Mermaid was now in working order there was no further alarm because of the darkness. The ship rested on a le
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CHAPTER XXIIITHE DESERTED VILLAGE
CHAPTER XXIIITHE DESERTED VILLAGE
Jack’s cries were growing fainter and fainter. Peering in through the branches of the dead tree the professor could see the whip-like limbs winding closer and closer about the boy. “I am afraid we will be too late!” he said. Andy had twisted some paper into a rude torch. He set fire to it with his pocket lighter, and, when Bill and Mark brought him some little pieces of dead wood the old hunter added them to his bundle, which was now blazing brightly. “How are you going to do it?” asked the prof
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CHAPTER XXIVTHE GIANTS
CHAPTER XXIVTHE GIANTS
“Let’s go down and investigate,” suggested Jack. “Better wait,” counseled the professor. “It will soon be dark, and, though we will have moonlight, we can not see to advantage. I think it will be best to keep the ship in the air to-night, and descend in the morning. Then we can look about and decide on what to do.” They all agreed this was the best plan, and, after making a circle above the deserted village, and noting no signs of life, the Mermaid was brought to a halt over the centre of the to
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CHAPTER XXVHELD BY THE ENEMY
CHAPTER XXVHELD BY THE ENEMY
“Keep the doors closed!” cried the professor. “It is our only hope! I will send the ship up again!” But it was too late. Washington, who had obeyed the signal from the conning tower to shut off the engines, had disconnected most of them so they could not be started again save from the main room. At the same time there came a yell of dismay from the colored man, who had slid back the steel covering of the main side entrance to the Mermaid . “I’m caught!” cried Washington. As the professor and the
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CHAPTER XXVIIA FRIEND INDEED
CHAPTER XXVIIA FRIEND INDEED
Though the giants, man for man, were no match for the travelers, collectively the horde proved too much. They had swarmed about the ship, and, by passing the big cables over her, effectively held her down. “Let me get out and I’ll cut ’em!” cried Andy. “We must get away from these savages!” “No, no, don’t go out!” exclaimed the professor. “They would eventually kill you, though you might fight them off for a time. We must wait and see what develops. They can have no object in harming us, as we h
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CHAPTER XXVIIA GREAT JOURNEY
CHAPTER XXVIIA GREAT JOURNEY
Such indeed, seemed to be the case. The golden-armored giant, after standing for a few moments in an attitude of command, waved his sword three times about his head, and uttered a command, in a voice that sounded like thunder. Then the prostrate ones arose, and, making low bows hurried away in all directions. Watching them disappear, the golden one sheathed his weapon and approached the ship. He caught sight of the professor and the two boys in the conning tower, for Mark had gone there when he
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CHAPTER XXVIIITHE TEMPLE OF TREASURE
CHAPTER XXVIIITHE TEMPLE OF TREASURE
“What’s that?” fairly yelled the professor. “We am propelling ourselves in a contiguous direction an’ in close proximity to an elevated portion of th’ earth’s surface which rises in antiguous proximity t’ th’ forward part of our present means of locomotion!” said the colored man in a loud voice. “Which means there may be a collision,” the professor said, as he and the boys hurried toward the tower. “Jest what I said,” retorted Washington. “What’ll I do?” “Send the ship a little higher,” answered
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CHAPTER XXIXBACK HOME—CONCLUSION
CHAPTER XXIXBACK HOME—CONCLUSION
On and on sped the Mermaid . Now that the travelers felt their journey accomplished they were anxious to begin the homeward trip. They made a straight course for the village where they had so nearly met with disaster, and where the king of the giants had saved them. They went in a direct line, and did not travel here and there, as they had after they left the town. Consequently they shortened the route by a great distance. Yet it was long enough, and when they finally came in sight of the place
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