They gained it and lunged across it to the shelving slope that reached upward to the narrow, perilous ridge whence they had come.
As they proceeded, the pigmy horde following with incredible swiftness, Stoddard wheeled and fired time and again--and now his shots were answered by the reports of rifles.
"Kra.s.snov and his Cossacks!" he muttered. "Well, we"ll give them our heels, unless they hit us."
"And Russians are notoriously bad shots, I understand," panted the professor.
At any rate, they reached the slope and struggled upward toward the ridge, putting themselves presently out of range behind the jagged rocks that loomed on every side.
But just as they were congratulating themselves on their escape, came a dull, reverberating explosion--and as they clung to their insecure footholds, a volcano of snow and ice rose ahead. Thousands of tons of debris avalanched into the chasm below.
Stunned, deafened, they looked around.
Down in that pocket where the Thunderbolt had so recently gleamed was one vast chaos, and above, where that razor-back ridge had led across the intervening chasms to safety, was a dazzling void.
To both came the same thought, but Stoddard expressed it first.
"Kra.s.snov--he"s dynamited the ridge!" he gasped.
"Then we--we"ll never get back now!" echoed Professor Prescott.
"No, but they"ll never get us here!"
"Scant comfort, though, when we"re pinioned here like a couple of birds with their wings clipped."
"Right; but let"s see. Let"s figure. We"re better off than we were.
And what was it Napoleon once said: "When you can"t retreat, advance."
So suppose we--"
"But listen!"
Stoddard heard. It was the sound of rifle shots. And looking down, he saw a feverish activity surrounding the rocket. Myriads of the pigmies were swarming upon it, while a handful of Cossacks were holding them off.
"Something doing down there, all right!" he muttered. "Looks to me like--why, sure I"ve got it! That madman has overshot himself, for once! He"s buried their precious meteor, in blowing up our ridge, and they"ve turned on him!"
"I think you"re right," agreed Professor Prescott. "Suppose we advance as you say. It looks like a chance."
"Right," said Stoddard.
Slowly, cautiously, they returned down the slope.
When within a hundred yards, they knew they had sized up the situation correctly. With frantic speed, Kra.s.snov was supervising the shoveling out of his rocket from amid the debris; was directing its loading, while the free members of his crew held off the enraged natives who were obstructing them.
Descending even more cautiously now, they neared the scene of activity.
"My plan is this--to get aboard and find out where they"re going!"
said Stoddard, through shut teeth. "What do you say?"
"Lead on!" said the professor.
So they continued down, neared the resting-place of that strange craft, and, under shelter of the moonlight shadows, stole through the confused ranks surrounding it and crept aboard.
Stowing themselves into the first likely niche that offered--a narrow cubicle behind a flight of metal stairs--they waited, scarcely daring to breathe for fear of being discovered.
Fifteen minutes pa.s.sed, a half-hour, when suddenly sounded a rasping of doors that told them the rocket was being sealed.
Then came a roar, as of some mighty blast beating down upon the frozen earth, followed by a lifting, rushing sensation--and they were flung violently to the flooring.
The pressure ceased in a moment, however, to be supplanted by a buoyant, exhilarating sense of flight. It increased, and they judged they must be traveling at great speed.
Glancing at the luminous dial of his watch, Professor Prescott saw that it was a quarter to ten.
"Well, we"re off!" he whispered. "And where, would you guess, are we headed?"
"I wouldn"t guess," Stoddard whispered back. "From the way we"re riding, it might be Mars! We must be making hundreds of miles an hour."
"Or thousands! Who knows?"
They crouched there in their cramped niche, scarcely even whispering now, as the tense minutes pa.s.sed.
Suddenly the motion changed. They seemed to be dropping.
Another moment or two, and with a slight jar the rocket came to rest.
"Well, we"re here, wherever it is," said Stoddard, stirring.
"Yes, undoubtedly," the professor agreed. "And the next move?"
"I think we"ll let them make that."
They were not long in doing so. There came the sound of doors rasping open, of footsteps echoing on metal stairs and corridors. Once a giant Cossack pa.s.sed within four feet of them. But at length, all was silent within the rocket.
"Now, then, suppose we have a look around," said Stoddard, stepping out.
"Right," agreed his companion, following. "I"ll admit I am mildly curious to know what corner of the earth we"ve been transported to."
They proceeded down the dim-lit corridor the way they had come, descended a flight of stairs and headed along another corridor--to pause suddenly and gasp with astonishment. For through the door whence they had entered the rocket poured a flood of sunshine.