"Oh, if it"s only a theory, den I reckons it"s all right," came from the colored man. "I didn"t know it were a theory. Dat makes it all right. It"s jest in theory, am it, Ma.s.sa Mark, dat a stone goes six times as far?"
"That"s all."
"Oh, well, den, why didn"t yo" say so fust, dat it was only a theory? I don"t mind theories. I--I used t" eat "em boiled an" roasted befo" de wah." And, with a contented smile on his face, Washington went into the projectile, to finish stowing things away in his kitchen lockers.
The big projectile was housed in the shed where it had been constructed, and the professor and the boys were working over it there, carefully guarded from curious eyes, for the German inventor did not want the secret of his Cardite motor to become known.
The work went on from day to day, good progress being made. The boys were of great a.s.sistance, for they were practical mechanics, and had had considerable experience.
"Well, I shall try the Cardite motor to-morrow," announced Professor Roumann one night, after a hard day"s work on the projectile.
"Do you think it will work?" asked Mr. Henderson.
"I think so, yes. My experiments have made me hopeful."
"And if it does work, when can we start?" asked Jack.
"Two days later; that is, if everything else is in readiness, the food and other, supplies on board."
"They are all ready to be stowed away," said Andy Sudds, who had been hunting all day.
It was an anxious a.s.semblage that gathered inside the big shed the next day, to watch Professor Roumann try the Cardite motor. Would it work as well as had the Etherium one? Would it send them along through s.p.a.ce at enormous speed? True, they would not have to travel so far, nor so fast, but more power would be needed, since, as it was feared no food, water, nor air could be had on the moon, many more supplies were to be taken along than on the trip to Mars, and this made the projectile heavier.
"We will test the Cardite in this small motor first," said Mr. Roumann, as he pointed to a machine in the projectile used for winding a cable around a windla.s.s when there was necessity for hauling the _Annihilator_ about, without sending it into the air.
Into the receptacle of the motor, the German professor placed some of the wonderful red substance he had secured from Mars. Then he closed the heavy metal box that held it, and, looking about to see if all was in readiness, he motioned to those watching him that he was about to shift the lever that would start the motor.
"If it works as well as I hope it will," he said, "it ought to pull the projectile slowly across the shop--a task that would be impossible in a motor of this size, if operated by electricity, gasoline, or any other force at present in use. And, if this small motor will do that, I know the large ones will send us through s.p.a.ce to the moon. All ready, now."
Slowly the professor shoved over the lever, while Jack, Mark and the others watched him carefully. They were standing back of him, in the engine room of the projectile.
There was a clicking sound as the lever snapped into place. This was succeeded by a buzzing hum, as the motor began to absorb the great power from the red substance, which was not unlike radium in its action. There was a trembling to the great projectile.
"She"s moving!" cried Jack.
Hardly had he spoken when there was a flash of red fire, a sound as of a bursting bomb, and everyone was knocked from his feet, over backward, while Professor Roumann was hurled the entire length of the engine room.
"The Cardite motor has exploded!" cried Mark. "Professor Roumann is killed!"
CHAPTER V
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY
Jack"s first act, on arising from amid a ma.s.s of tools, into which he had been tossed by the explosion, was to run to where Professor Roumann lay in a semi-conscious condition. An instant later Mark slowly arose, and made his way to where Professor Henderson was rubbing his forehead in a dazed fashion.
"Are you hurt?" asked Mark, of his aged friend.
"I think not," answered Mr. Henderson slowly, "but I fear Mr. Roumann is. See to him; I"m all right."
"He"s breathing," cried Jack, who had bent over the German. "He isn"t dead, at any rate."
"But he may be, unless he gets attention," said Professor Henderson.
"Get my medicine chest, Mark, and we"ll see what we can do for him."
Jack had raised the head of the injured man on his arm, and was giving him some water from a gla.s.s. This partially revived the German, and he opened his eyes. He looked around, into the faces of his friends, as if scarcely comprehending what had happened, and then, as his gaze wandered toward the disabled Cardite motor, he exclaimed:
"Some enemy has done this! The motor was tampered with. The resistance block was loosened, and that caused the force of the Cardite to shoot out at the rear. We must watch out for the work of this enemy!"
"Don"t distress yourself about that now," urged Mr. Henderson. "Are you badly hurt? Do you need a doctor?"
The German slowly drank the rest of the water which Jack gave him, and then gradually arose to a standing position.
"I am all right," he said faintly, "except that I feel a trifle dizzy.
Something hit me on the head, and the fumes from the Cardite took away my breath for a moment. I think I shall be all right soon."
"Here is the medicine chest!" exclaimed Mark, coming back into the engine room. Mr. Henderson poured out some aromatic spirits of ammonia into a graduated gla.s.s, added a little water, and gave it to his fellow, inventor, who, after drinking it, declared that he felt much better. There was a cut on his forehead, where a piece of the broken motor had struck him, but, otherwise, he did not seem injured externally.
As for the boys, they were only stunned, nor was Mr. Henderson more than momentarily shocked. In a few minutes the German professor was almost himself again.
"We must try to discover who our enemy is," he said earnestly, as he looked over the disabled motor. "He might have blown up the whole projectile by tampering as he did with the machinery. Had I been testing the large, instead of the small motor, there would have been nothing left of the _Annihilator_, or us, either. Who could have done this? If that crazy machinist is around again----"
"I don"t believe he could get here from Mars," interrupted Jack, with a smile.
"Hardly," added Mark.
"No, I guess he is still on the Red Planet, so it couldn"t have been him," went on Mr. Roumann. "But it was some one."
Jack and Mark at once thought of the odd man who had sent Mark the note, and then had run away.
"Could it have been him?" suggested Jack.
"It"s possible," remarked Professor Henderson. "We must be on our guard. I wonder if Washington----"
At that moment there sounded a violent pounding on the exterior of the projectile, and the voice of the colored man could be heard calling:
"Am anything de mattah? Andy Sudds an" I is out heah, an" we heard suffin goin" on in dere. Am anybody hurted?"
"It"s all over now, Wash," replied Jack, for the two boys, and the two professors, had shut themselves up in the projectile while they conducted the experiment. Jack opened the door of the _Annihilator_ and stepped out, being met by the colored man and the old hunter.
"You haven"t seen any suspicious characters around, have you, Wash?"
asked Mark. "Some one has been tampering with a motor, and it exploded."
"n.o.body"s been around since I"ve been here," announced Andy Sudds, with a significant glance at his gun.
"Maybe it"s some ob dem moon-men, what don"t laik de idea ob us goin"