"All the stores are in the far end of the cabin," grunted Roebach.
"And you can see what that geyser is doing to the shed where the tools are. There goes another stone through the roof!"
"If we could only get hold of that portable forge," said Mark.
"And that is what we _must_ get," exclaimed Jack. "Is the door of that shanty locked, Mr. Roebach?"
"It"s nothing but a skin door," replied the oil man. "But it"s at the far side--fronting that old mud-slinger. Did you ever see the beat of that? _That_ stone must have weighed fifty pounds."
But Jack Darrow noticed a certain fact. That was that the debris from the spouter was not shot so high as at first. Therefore, it was not being spread abroad so far.
Only small stones, now, were dropping around the tool shed. And the rear wall of the shanty was made of the most flimsy material.
Suddenly he slipped down to one side and got upon the level of the valley. n.o.body but Mark noticed his movements for a minute, and to him Jack had given a warning glance.
The boy had crossed to the back of the tool-shed before the men of the party noticed his absence from the knoll.
"Look at that reckless fellow!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the professor. "Come back here, Jack!"
But Master Jack was already at the shed. He tore away a part of the rear wall in a moment. The mud rained down upon him, but fortunately no rock came his way.
There was light enough yet for him to see inside the hut. Andy Sudds had already started after Jack, and when the latter dragged the small forge out of the shelter, the old hunter picked it up, flung it upon his shoulder, and trotted back to the highland.
"Come away! Come away, Jack!" cried the professor again.
But the youth stopped long enough to obtain a sledge hammer and other tools that he knew they should need. As he ran from the hut two stones shot out by the geyser crashed through the roof; but he escaped all injury.
He was plastered with mud from head to foot, however, when he regained the high land.
"It was worth it," Jack declared, laughing, when he was safe. "I want to get away from this neighborhood just as quick as we can. And if we can fix the _s...o...b..rd_ let us do it this very night and take our flight for other climes. We don"t know when another earthquake or volcanic eruption will occur."
"Very true, my boy," admitted the professor, with a sigh. "At least, we will endeavor to repair the damage done to your flying machine at once. But there is much going on here that interests me."
Andy and Jack set up the forge and in a few minutes they had a glowing fire in it. Then the boys set to work welding the broken rods and straightening those that had become bent.
Meanwhile Mr. Roebach hauled out his sled and whipped the dogs into line so that he could gear them up. The canines acted badly because they were more used to their Indian masters. When the boys had done their work, however, the oil man was ready to transport them all up the mountainside to the plateau where the _s...o...b..rd_ lay.
His cabin was by this time riddled by the flying stones and everything in and about it was plastered with mud. It would have been foolhardy indeed to attempt to get at the provisions.
"You see," Mark said, "we are forced to get away in the _s...o...b..rd_ at once, or to escape to some town where we can get food. There isn"t much left of our stores on the flying machine." "And what will Mr.
Roebach do about his dogs? They must be fed," said Jack.
"He"ll have to abandon them if he goes with us on the _s...o...b..rd_,"
returned his chum.
It was now the long twilight of the Arctic evening. None of the party had eaten since breakfast and they felt the need of sustenance. If nothing else, this need of food would have hurried the party on to their destination farther up the mountainside.
As they advanced the roaring of the mud geyser diminished. The professor continued to be much interested in the condition of Nature about them as they climbed the hill. The uprooted trees, and the huge trunks broken off by the final upheaval of the earth, made the old gentleman look very serious indeed.
"There has been a mighty change in the face of Nature," he said thoughtfully. "You boys were saved from death by a miracle, I have no doubt."
"We were all knocked senseless for a time," Mark told him.
"Indeed? And so were we at the camp. All of us lost consciousness.
Dear, dear! what happened during those minutes that we were all unconscious? Something of the greatest importance--some great change took place that now we can scarcely understand." "And what do you make of that over yonder?" queried Jack, suddenly pointing toward the northern horizon.
A deepening glow had appeared in that direction. Rapidly it increased until there appeared above the horizon the edge of a huge disk. Its light was mellow like the moon"s; but whoever heard of the moon rising in the North?
"What can that possibly be, Professor?" cried Mark as they all gazed in wonder at the rapidly increasing body rising into complete view.
Professor Henderson shook his head slowly. For once he was surely at a loss to explain a scientific phenomenon. The huge globe, evidently reflecting palely the sun"s light, mounted upward more rapidly than the moon ever crossed the heavens.
"All nature has gone mad!" gasped Professor Henderson at length. "Have we discovered a new celestial body? I never heard of such a thing--so near to us, too! Come, hurry on, boys. Let me get and mount the telescope. This new mystery must be solved."
CHAPTER XIV
ON THE WING AGAIN
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 their amazement--after his first statement--he remained strangely quiet.
But the moment the party reached the spot where the flying machine rested he went at once to the locker where he had stowed the very powerful telescope that he had insisted upon bringing with them from home. With Washington"s help he was an hour in setting up the telescope and properly adjusting it, while the boys and Andy worked steadily upon the repairing of the flying machine. Roebach had loosed his dogs again and threw them the last bits of fish he had for them, and they were fighting over the putrid flesh at one side. The oil man watched the repairs with interest. He had agreed to travel as far as Aleukan with the party and there hire fresh Indians and sleds, hoping to find these dogs on his return. He had to have a.s.sistants and provisions before he could go on with his work for the Universal Oil Company.
"Merely that yonder oil-shoot turned into a mud-bath doesn"t feaze him," chuckled Jack to Mark. "Earthquakes and volcanoes don"t seem to bother that chap any more than they do the professor."
"Just watch him now," suggested Mark, suddenly.
"Watch who--Roebach?"
"The professor," explained Mark.
The old gentleman was certainly deeply interested at that moment in his study of the great pale globe that was rising toward the zenith so much more quickly than any moon that the boys had previously seen.
The professor was crouched at the mirror of the telescope gazing into it through the powerful lens. Suddenly he threw up his hands and staggered back from the instrument, turning a pallid face upon his companions. "What done happened yo", Perfesser?" cried Washington White. "What done skeer yo" now? Dis suah am de startlin"est place dat we ebber got into. Gollyation! Ain"t dat moon risin", dough?"
"It is no moon!" declared the professor.
"A most mysterious thing," Mark said. "Is it some great planet out of its...o...b..t, sir?"
"It is a planet--of course it is a planet," admitted the professor, going back to his telescope with eagerness.
"And how light it is getting--almost like day," said Jack. "No moonlight was ever like this."
"Why, we"re not as far away from that planet as the moon is from the earth," said Mark. "Suppose it b.u.mps us?"