The professor himself was fighting like a Trojan to ward off sleep.
“I must do something to save them—save myself,” he thought, as he looked on Tod and Nestor, both slumbering heavily, while it seemed that Jerry’s breathing was already becoming less vigorous as the deadly fumes overcame him. “I can’t move the airship alone,” thought the scientist, “and it would hardly be safe to do so in the darkness. Yet I must take some action. If there was only some way of overcoming the fumes, or making them less harmful——” he paused suddenly in his musing. His scientific mind was at work. Already he was recalling what he knew of the fatal bushes. He had once analyzed the juice from them, for it was from the sap that the exhalation came, carrying death. The bushes only gave off the odor at night. In the day they were harmless.
“I must make some other kind of fumes that will neutralize those of the bushes of death,” reasoned Professor Snodgrass. “Let me see what will be the most effective.”
He had a small stock of chemicals with him, and it did not take him long to decide which he would use. He made a mixture of sulphur, carbolic acid, creosote and some other acids, and placed them in a pan. This he placed on top of the gasolene stove, and lighted a fire beneath it. All the while the scientist himself was fighting off sleep, but as he was vigorously moving about, and as he realized what it would mean to succumb, it served to keep him awake. The others were slumbering more heavily.
Rapidly the professor worked. When the mixture was sending forth the badly smelling fumes, which, however, would serve to kill the exhalations from the bushes, the scientist carried the pan into the cabin. Then, suspending it over a small lamp, he caused a still greater vapor to be given off. The cabin was filled with the fumes.
“Wake up now! Wake up!” urged the scientist again, as he roused the sleepers. Already the good effects of the boiling mixture were apparent, for Mr. Snodgrass felt less sleepy. Once he had aroused the others, he knew they would be comparatively safe. He managed, after strenuous work, to shake them so that they opened their eyes. Jerry was the hardest to arouse, for he had worked hard that day, and was exhausted. But finally they were all sitting up, staring stupidly about them, scarcely aware of what had taken place, yet knowing it was something unusual. They sniffed the strong odor, and it served to drive out from their lungs the fumes of the bushes. In a little while the air of the cabin was entirely void of the dangerous exhalations. The carbolic acid and other chemicals had neutralized them.
“Now, Bob, make strong coffee,” urged the professor. “That will complete the work I started and will make us all feel better.”
“What happened?” asked Ned drowsily, while the others rubbed their heavy eyes.
The professor explained. Soon Bob had made a big pot of the strong beverage, and it was gratefully received.