CHAPTER XIII
NATURE GONE MAD
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 to him. The descending debris threatened them all, and although they retired in a more dignified way than had the Indians from the vicinity of the spouting monster, they were all more or less disturbed by this new phenomenon.
Stones weighing from ten to twenty pounds were projected into the air, some of them crashing through the roof of the cabin when they descended. The mud and water grew into a pool, then a lake, completely surrounding the spot where the derrick had stood and where the geyser continued to spout.
"We surely must move out," the oil man said, in much perturbation. "My shop yonder seems to be a target for those rocks. There goes another!"
"And we have got to use a forge to weld and straighten these damaged rods!" Mark cried, worriedly.
"Sorry, boy. I don't believe any of us will be able to get at my forge till this shower of missiles stops," said Phineas Roebach.
"What needs to be done to the flying machine?" asked the professor, briskly. "Are you sure it can be repaired, Mark?"
"Very sure, sir," replied the boy.
"And you, Jack?" repeated Professor Henderson.
"We could fix it up all right before midnight," declared the other.
"But we must have a forge."
"This geyser will stop playing after a bit, we will hope," said the professor, encouragingly. "If the flying machine is not past repair we need not worry. Nor need you, Mr. Roebach. We can all get away from this region if it becomes necessary."
"Ma goodness!" gasped Washington White, who had listened to this speech with his mouth ajar. "Don't you consider, Perfesser, dat dere has erbout 'nuff happened yere fo' ter make it seem quite necessarious dat we evacuate de premises sorter promscuous an' soon like? Why, I done was sure de end ob He finish was at hand when dat las' big eart'quake hit us—I suah did!"
"I must say I don't care to linger around here myself," muttered Andy.
"We must not lose our courage," said the professor. "Never before have I been in a position to study seismic disturbances so closely. I only regret I have not with me here the instruments I brought in the Snowbird. And we must somehow learn the location of that volcano which is in eruption."
"It's all right to learn the location of it," whispered Mark to Jack. "But if we learn that we'll be pretty sure to fly in the opposite direction—what do you think?"
"Believe me," said Jack, "I've got enough. The old professor is all right, but he doesn't think about danger when his interest in any natural phenomena is aroused."
The roaring of the geyser was a most unpleasant sound and the upheaval of the stones was more than unpleasant—it threatened danger to them. The vicinity of the oil-boring had been exceptionally free from small stones; but in half an hour one might have picked up a two-horse cartload weighing from ten to twenty pounds each.
Washington had run in and saved Buttsy in his cage, and they had all retired now to the little plateau from the verge of which Washington had made his famous leap to the backs of the two Indians. Phineas Roebach had released the dogs from the shed where they had been confined. There were twenty of the animals—three or four teams—fierce and intractable brutes as a usual thing, unless under the sharp control of their Indian drivers. But now they came whining and crouching to the feet of the human beings grouped together on the plateau.
The evening was growing clear; but the geyser continued to roar like the exhaust of some mighty engine and to throw off filth and evil-smelling gas. Professor Henderson stood there, wrapped in his furs, and penciled notes in his book with a grave enjoyment of the scene that made his companions wonder.
But Andy Sudds read signs other than those of which the professor made notes. Jack saw the old hunter watching the sledge dogs with a puzzled frown wrinkling his brow.
"What's the matter with you, Andy?" queried the youth.
"Them dogs," declaimed the hunter.
"What about them?" "They're plumb scart. All this disturbance and mystery has got in on them. They act just like they were seeing spooks."
"Spooks!" repeated Jack in surprise. "Do you mean to say dogs can see ghosts?"
"All dogs can smell out when things is going to happen," declared Andy Sudds. "They're better prophets than old women, you bet you! And these dogs act to me as though we hadn't come by the worst of our trouble yet."
Oddly enough it was Professor Henderson himself who took up the suggestion that more trouble was in the offing.
"It is my opinion, Mr. Roebach," he said, to the oil man, "that you had better remove such possessions as you can from this valley at once. And put your dogs somewhere so that they cannot run away like your Indians. If we are balked in attempting to repair the flying machine, these dogs and sleds are what we must depend upon."
"To escape from this country, you mean, sir?" asked Mark.
"To reach Aleukan and the valley where the Chrysothele-Byzantium is to be found," replied the professor, promptly.
But it was to run the chance of a rain of death to go down into the basin where the shop and cabin were situated. Further up the hillside the dogs' quarters had been built, and the sleds were there, too. The oil man and Andy Sudds looked at one another.
"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. Nobody 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!" ejaculated 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 Snowbird 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 Snowbird 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 Snowbird 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 Snowbird," 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."