On A Torn-Away World; Or, The Captives Of The Great Earthquake

ON A TORN-AWAY WORLD

Or The Captives of the Great Earthquake Other titles by ROY ROCKWOOD...

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I. SHOT INTO THE AIR!

XXV. THE HERD of KADIAKS...

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SHOT INTO THE AIR

"Hurrah!" shouted Jack Darrow, flicking the final drops of lacquer from the paintbrush he had been using. "That's the last stroke. She's finished!" "I guess we've done all we can to her before her trial trip," admitted his chum, Mark Sampson, but in a less confident tone. "You don't see anything wrong with her, old croaker; do you?" demanded Jack, laughing as usual. "'The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof; not in chewing the pudding bag string'," quoted Mark, still with a serious cou

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CHAPTER II

Professor Henderson and his adopted sons—Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson—had been in many perilous situations together. Neither one nor the other was likely to display panic at the present juncture, although the flying Snowbird was playing a gigantic game of "leap-frog" through the air. The professor had himself constructed many wonderful machines for transportation through the air, under the ground, and both on and beneath the sea; and in them he and his young comrades had voyaged afar. Narrated i

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CHAPTER III

Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson were glad enough to be of the party aiming to reach northern Alaska and the Endicott Range, if Professor Henderson really intended going to find the strange herb for which Dr. Todd was willing to pay so generously. Of discussion, pro and con, there was much. Indeed, they sat up until after midnight after the reading of Dr. Todd's letter, talking over the contemplated journey, and gradually the details of the trip, including all preparations for it, were worked out. J

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CHAPTER IV

With the moonlight lying like a benediction over the fields and forests of Maine, the Snowbird , her motor humming like a huge bumble-bee, and her propellers and controls working in perfect order, swept on her course into the northwest. The lights of Easton, ten miles from their home, melted into the earth-shadow behind the sky-voyagers within the first hour of the sure-to-be eventful journey. Jack Darrow did not force the pace of the flying machine. They had a long and trying flight before them

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CHAPTER V

Mark Sampson, having all the mechanism of the flying machine under his immediate control, had it in his power to increase speed and seek to escape the second airship. And Jack wondered why his chum did not immediately send the Snowbird flying at increased speed over the top of Mt. Katahdin and so seek to escape the menace below. But the young fellow at the controls of the Snowbird had an advantage over his companions that Jack had forgotten. He could hear sounds at a much greater distance than t

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CHAPTER VI

Speedy as the Snowbird was, she could not get out from under the shadow of the strange aeroplane. That was driven at a sharp angle down upon the boys' flying machine, and it seemed to all those in the lower 'plane that a collision was imminent. The thunder fairly deafened them all. Around them rolled the mists and the wind shrieked through the stays of the aeroplane and shook the structure like a dog worrying a bone. Down they fell, and in an instant the rushing rain, emptied in a torrent from t

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CHAPTER VII

A thick mantle of fog masked the heavens; but beneath this the wind—traveling at great velocity—drove the ragged clouds like frightened sheep across the pastures of the firmament. The moon and stars gave so little light that the earth seemed but a vague and shadowy mass—nothing more. The wind shrieked in many voices, as though a troop of goblins raced through the air, or rode the strangely formed and hurrying clouds. Driven on with the tumbling banks of vapor, as vaguely outlined in the gloom as

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CHAPTER VIII

As has been said, the boys and their older companions had been in many perilous situations; but no adventure promised to end more tragically than this flight of the huge airship. The descent of the Snowbird , punctuated by the rifle shot below, seemed likely to be fatal to them all. "What kind of people can they be?" gasped Mark. "They are trying to shoot us." "Give me my rifle! I'll show 'em!" exclaimed the old hunter. "You'll do nothing of the kind, Andy," commanded Professor Henderson. "Do no

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CHAPTER IX

The long twilight which preceded full day had now grown so strong as to reveal matters more plainly about the spot where Mark and Andy Sudds had disembarked from the flying machine. They soon saw several objects running through the grove toward them, and these objects proved to be the returning Indians. There were half a dozen of them, and they were all armed with rifles. The moment they beheld the old hunter and the youth, with Phineas Roebach, they gave every indication of shooting, for they s

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CHAPTER X

The 'quake was over in a very few moments; the Indians and Washington White, however, cowered upon the ground for some time, crying out their fear of what they considered supernatural phenomena. Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson were not frightened in the same way as the darkey and the Aleuts; nevertheless they were much shaken. Professor Henderson, however, displayed naught but the keenest interest in the scientific side of the happening. He clambered to his feet the moment he could stand, and obser

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CHAPTER XI

Unlike the former trembling of the earth, this experience gave no immediate promise of cessation. The world rocked on in awful throes—as though it really was, as the black man feared, the end of all material things. Jack and Mark rolled upon the ground in the grove of huge trees, clinging to each other's hands, but unable to rise, or to find their two comrades. A rising thunder of sound accompanied this manifestation, too. And, after some stricken minutes, the boys realized that it was thunder.

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CHAPTER XII

"Somebody grabbed him!" shouted Andy Sudds. "Oh, lawsy-massy-gollyation!" yelped the frightened darkey. "Massa Mark done been kerried up, suah 'nuff! I tole youse disher was de end ob de worl'." But Jack, followed by the old hunter, sprang to the opening. How light they were upon their feet! The experience of moving shot this surprising thought through Jack Darrow's mind: "I'm as light as a feather. I have lost half my weight, I declare I How can that be possible?" Andy Sudds was evidently distu

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CHAPTER XIII

The fat man came panting to the group surrounding Professor Henderson, just as fast as he could move his feet. And never before had the boys, or the professor, or Andy, or the black man beheld such an apparently heavy man get over the ground at such speed. "A very mysterious thing," the professor was saying again—and he did not mean the roaring, spouting geyser that was shooting gas and debris a couple of hundred feet into the air. Nor did he have time then to explain what seemed so mysterious t

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CHAPTER XIV

There was no member of the party who was not amazed and disturbed by the strange happenings of the last few hours. The earthquake and volcanic disturbances, followed by the outburst of the geyser, and now capped by the appearance of a new and wondrous planet on the northern horizon, were happenings calculated to make more than Washington White shake with terror. What Professor Amos Henderson really thought about this new celestial body it would be hard to tell. While the others chattered in thei

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CHAPTER XV

Jack Darrow was a youth less likely to be panic-stricken than his chum; but just as Mark Sampson had lost his head for a few minutes on the occasion when the Snowbird was tried out, so Jack was flustered now. The flying machine shot up at such a tangent, and so swiftly, that he was both amazed and frightened. The speed indicator showed a terrific pace within a few seconds, and when Jack first tried to reduce the speed he learned that the mechanism acted in a manner entirely different than ever b

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CHAPTER XVI

The force with which the flying machine had plunged into the chasm in the ice was sufficient to smash her keel-fin to bits. There was other damage done, too—how great this damage was the boys and the professor could not immediately discover. They were all alive—that was one thing to be thankful for. And Washington White's Shanghai, aroused from sleep by the disturbance, began to crow vociferously. The Snowbird was wedged into a very small space upon the ledge of ice. At first view it was quite c

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CHAPTER XVII

The stern and uncompromising statement of Professor Henderson relating to the awful fate that had overtaken his friends and Phineas Roebach was so uncompromising—almost brutal—that not a word was spoken for several minutes. Even Washington White was dumb. The fact that the fragment of the earth on which they were imprisoned was floating miles above the globe, in the rarified atmosphere of the outer universe, and that they were at that moment able to look up and see the great, calm, palely glowin

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CHAPTER XVIII

The oil hunter's demand was like a bomb thrown in their midst. The boys had been so deeply interested in the professor's relation of facts, and in the scientific phase of their situation, that the more practical questions of their mere existence on this island in the air had not before held their attention for long. "We've got to find some way of climbing out, I reckon," Mark said, slowly. "Well, find it!" snapped Phineas Roebach. "Let's talk of something practical. We'll freeze to death down he

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CHAPTER XIX

It was the aged scientist who again put heart in the party when Andy Sudds and Phineas Roebach brought back the report of this catastrophe. "We must not give up hope," declared Professor Henderson, cheerfully. "We have lost what work has been done on the ice-wall, it is true. But we can begin again." "And of what use will that be?" demanded Mark Sampson. "The sun will melt away the ladder again." "We have many more hours of night here than we have of daylight—you can all see that, eh?" said the

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CHAPTER XX

Jack Darrow was the only person in the group around the campfire who at first saw the huge bear. And he was so startled that for a breath he did not know what it was best to do. To shriek out in alarm would neither save the darkey nor frighten off the bear. The Shanghai rooster settled down with a half-stifled squawk in the bottom of his coop. Without doubt the bird saw the bear and realized that his life was in peril. "What de matter wid yo'?" demanded Washington, rolling his eyes and beginning

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CHAPTER XXI

After the hearty supper, and the excitement of the bear-killing, they were all more or less ready for bed. The professor figured that the sun would not appear again to the Crusoes on this island in the air for quite fourteen hours. They all ought to get sufficient sleep before that time. The havoc wrought by the rays of the torrid sun upon the glacier had been apparent as they came over it to this fringe of trees at the base of the cliff. It might be necessary for them to move quickly from the i

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CHAPTER XXII

The hole into which Mark fell was not many yards across; but when he came to the surface of the icy water he found that the edge of the strong ice was fringed with open jaws and lolling, blood-red tongues. The wolves had surrounded the open bit of water and were prepared to welcome him with wide jaws wherever he sought to climb out. The lad knew well enough that he was helpless against these foes. To seek to reach the ice would be to give himself up to the savage brutes. Nor could he remain long

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CHAPTER XXIII

Phineas Roebach knew nothing about this narrow defile through which the party traveled. But he agreed that they were breaking through the wall of the glacier on the right side. Aleukan, the big native settlement, was in this direction. There seemed to be a narrow crack through this cliff which had guarded the river of ice. It had never been used by man as a right of way, but the beasts of the wilderness had used it from time immemorial, as the marks along the way proclaimed. The scurrying feet o

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CHAPTER XXIV

Washington White was a good shot, but he did not like fighting. And he was particularly careful not to show himself above the breastwork of boulders behind which he, with his companions, were crouching, holding the Aleuts at bay. "Disher ain't no place for a'spectable pusson ob color," he muttered. "Wot do Buttsy an' me want o' shootin'? Wah! Dat bullet chipped de rock right near ma haid! Ain't dat Injun got no respec' for who I is?" "I don't believe he knows who you really are, Wash," chuckled

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CHAPTER XXV

Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson had never experienced so arduous a trip by dog sled as this. The party was really running a race with starvation. The terrible frosts of each long night on this island in the air had killed every species of vegetation the country wide, save the very hardiest trees and shrubs. The country, which two weeks before had been verdant as only a northern country can be verdant in late summer, was now as black as though a fire had swept over it. Everywhere, too, lay the volca

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CHAPTER XXVI

It was too late for our heroes and their friends to escape giving battle to the bears. They could not steer the sleds clear of the monsters, nor could they retreat. There were enough of the savage beasts in the rear to make this last impossible. "Come ahead!" yelled Andy Sudds to Phineas Roebach, who guided the second sled. "Don't stop." Jack and Mark, with the old hunter, were on the first sled. They were armed with magazine rifles, and all seized these and prepared to fight for their lives. An

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CHAPTER XXVII

The depressing influence of this disappointment could not fail to be felt by all—even by the old professor. They were without an ounce of food and had no means of continuing their journey, even had they possessed an objective point. Nigatuk was expected to have stores. Whalers as well as Government ships often touched there. If this torn-away world was to float about the parent globe for long, Nigatuk might have become a focussing point for all the inhabitants of the new planet. But the volcanic

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CHAPTER XXVIII

It was several miles from the brink of what had once been the polar sea to the spot where the whalers were at work. Jack Darrow, Mark Sampson, and their friends found it a difficult way to travel too. Naturally they had abandoned the sleds. The ice on the stream which flowed out of this mouth of the Coleville River was so broken that they could no longer use it as a highway. The bottom of what had once been the ocean was only partly ice-covered. There were enormous rocks to climb over, or to fin

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CHAPTER XXIX

The boys were interested in this novel kind of whaling; but they were more deeply interested in the possible outcome of the situation in which they, and their friends, and the fur-traders, and the bark's crew, were all placed. The tearing away of this piece of our planet, on which the boys and their companions now sailed, must end finally in some terrible catastrophe. It would be catastrophe enough if the torn-away world never returned to the earth, but sailed forever and ever, round and round i

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CHAPTER XXX

But Professor Henderson and the boys, as well as Andy Sudds and Washington, gathered in the chart room. The aged scientist was confident that during their period of unconsciousness the fragment of the earth that had once been shot off into space, had returned to its parent globe, and he spoke cheerfully of their probable escape. "But have we descended into the very place we left?" demanded Mark. "Scarcely probable," returned the professor. "Nevertheless the ocean has returned to this spot," decl

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