The boys waited expectantly for his reappearance, while Wash stood, open-mouthed and eyes a-roll.
Suddenly the black man executed a most astounding acrobatic feat. From that standing posture he executed in the twinkling of an eye a swift back somersault, at least twenty feet from the ice!
"Oh, gollyation! I"se a goner!" he yelped, as he described his surprising parabola through the air.
The ice where Wash had stood, and where the steel peg had been driven in, was crushed to fragments as the huge head and shoulders of the wounded walrus came up from the depths. The creature had marked the negro"s position exactly, and had burst through the ice at the right spot. The wonderful lightness of all matter on this torn-away world, however, saved the darkey"s life. The blow threw Wash so far away that the walrus could not immediately get at him.
But he evidently laid his trouble entirely to the black man, and he threw himself forward along the ice, smashing it to bits, and gnashing at it with his tusks. In half a minute he would have been on the spot where the negro lay had not the boys run in swiftly and pumped a dozen bullets into his eyes and down his open mouth. By good luck more than good management they killed the beast.
"See wot yo" done done!" wailed Washington White, rising gingerly and with a hand upon the small of his back. "Yo" come near ter spilein"
Perfesser Henderson"s most impo"tant a.s.sistant. How do you "speck de perfesser c"d git erlong widout me?"
This was certainly an unanswerable question, and the boys admitted it.
They were sorry Wash had been so badly frightened, but they were delighted at the possession of the tusks of the walrus. The whalers secured the body, too, and made a very good quality of oil out of the blubber.
In hunting adventures, and in the labor of trying-out the whale blubber, several weeks pa.s.sed. The marooned scientist and his friends, with the crew of the whale ship, experienced some bad weather during this time.
For three entire days a terrible snowstorm raged--a blizzard that drifted the snow about the _Orion_ (which had chanced, when she was stranded, to settle on a perfectly even keel) until one could walk over her rail out upon the bottom of the sea.
But when this storm pa.s.sed over the sun came out and shone as tropically as ever. The snow melted very rapidly and the old sea bed was soon awash. The beasts and fish still alive in the sinks were enabled to reach the streams running out of the various mouths of the Coleville, and these creatures took to deep water.
"By Jo!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Captain Sproul, "give us a leetle more water and we"d sail the old _Orion_ after them, and reach the open sea again."
He had every belief that the ocean would return to its former bed, and his crew believed it, too. But Professor Henderson and the boys seriously discussed making some move from this locality.
It was plain that there was still plenty of game "along the sh.o.r.e of the old ocean, and they had about made up their mind to follow the edge of the sh.o.r.e toward Bering Sea and if possible find the revenue cutter _Bear_, when another storm broke over them. No snow fell this time. There was almost continual thunder and a downpour of rain and hail that was sufficient to smother anybody that ventured out upon the deck of the _Orion_. The new planet seemed to be in the throes of another eruption, too.
Lightning lit the waste about them with intermittent flashes. They had lost sight entirely of the old earth, of the moon, and of the sun. It seemed to Jack and Mark as though this tiny island in the air must be flying through s.p.a.ce again, buffeted by every element.
The wind wailed and screamed about the whaleship. There were more than sixty souls aboard and they crouched in the cabin and in the forecastle and knew not what to make of such a foray of the elements. At one moment the rain flooded down upon the decks as though a cloud had burst directly above them; then great hailstones fell, drumming on the planks like musket b.a.l.l.s.
The calmest person among them all was Professor Henderson. Captain Sproul had given the aged scientist the use of the small chart-room.
There he had set up certain of his instruments, and he hovered over these most of his waking hours, making innumerable calculations from time to time. During the awful turmoil of the elements he watched his instruments without sleep. The boys remained with him most of the time, for they realized that some catastrophe was threatening which the scientist feared but did not wish to explain at once.
Suddenly Captain Sproul burst into the chart-room and gasped:
"Can you tell me the meaning of this, Mr. Henderson? You"re a scientific sharp and know a whole lot of things. My cook just went to the galley door to throw out a pot of slops and something--some mysterious force--s.n.a.t.c.hed the heavy iron pot out of his hand and it went sailing off over the ship"s rail. Can you explain that?"
"Wasn"t it the wind s.n.a.t.c.hed it away?" asked Jack Darrow, before the professor was ready to answer.
"Don"t seem to be no wind blowing just at present," said Captain Sproul.
"Wait!" commanded the professor. "Order every companionway and hatch closed. Do not allow a man to go on deck, nor to open a deadlight. We must exist upon the air that remains in the vessel for the present."
"What do you mean?" gasped the skipper.
"There is no air outside!" declared Professor Henderson, solemnly. "We are flying through s.p.a.ce where no atmosphere exists. The iron pot merely remained poised in s.p.a.ce--our planet, far, far, heavier, is falling through this awful void."
"What sort o" stuff are you talkin"?" demanded Captain Sproul, growing positively white beneath his tan.
"We began to fall several minutes ago," said the professor, pointing to the indicator of one of the delicate instruments before him on the chart table. "The balance of attraction between the earth and the sun has become disturbed and we are plunging--"
"Into the sun?" shrieked Mark Sampson, springing to his feet.
"No! no! Toward the earth! Toward the earth!" reiterated Professor Henderson. "Her attraction has proved the greater. We are falling with frightful velocity toward the sphere from which we were blown off into s.p.a.ce so many weeks ago."
"I reckon I"m crazy," groaned Captain Sproul "I hear you folks talkin", but I don"t understand a thunderin" word you say."
"You can feel that the air in here is vitiated; can"t you?" demanded Professor Henderson.
The boys had already felt that it was more difficult to breathe. They heard cries all over the ship. Washington White burst into the room, crying: "Oh, lawsy-ma.s.sy me, Perfesser! We is done bein" smothercated.
De breaf am a-leabin" our bodies fo" suah."
The negro fell in a swoon, overturning the table and sending the professor"s instruments crashing to the floor. The others, struggling for breath, likewise sank beside Wash. The lights all over the ship were suddenly snuffed out. Every soul aboard lost consciousness as, rushing at unreckoned speed through the universe, the torn-away world descended toward its parent planet.
How long they were unconscious none of the survivors ever learned.
When they _did_ finally struggle to sense again, it was with the sound of the rushing of mighty waters in their ears.
The _Orion_ was afloat! She was being tossed upon the bosom of a wind-lashed ocean, and a hurricane, the like of which the two boys had never experienced before, was at its height.
Captain Sproul rose to his feet, panting for breath, but with his senses all alert. He shouted:
"The sea has rolled back again! What did I tell you? Up and at it, my bully boys! Get a sail upon her so"s we can have steering way. Every ile barrel is full and we"re homeward bound!"
The hatches were opened and they rushed on deck. It was so black that they could see nothing but the storm-tossed waves--not a sign of land.
But it was plain, too, that they were no longer on the lee sh.o.r.e. They had plenty of sea room to work the ship and the brave sailors went about their usual tasks with cheerfulness.
CHAPTER x.x.x
AN ENDURING MONUMENT--CONCLUSION
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 s.p.a.ce, 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," declared Jack.
"There is water here, yes," admitted the professor. "We are afloat, that is true."
"And is it not the Arctic Ocean?"
"Later I will tell you. They say there is no land in sight. I believe the bulk of the land which was shot off by the volcanic eruption has now sunk in this sea. What sea it is we can tell soon."
"When can we see the sun and take an observation?" queried Mark.