Hardly had Michael finished his explanation when some of the colonists re-entered the airship, and started the machinery. Again they lifted in the air. But they were not up long. For ten minutes they sailed over a dark line where the rocks showed beneath them rugged and mountainous, and then they flitted like a long silent streak across the line of darkness into a brilliant sunlight. Here Toplinsky dropped the airship quickly to the ground, and presently they landed in a small, narrow valley on the bank of a lake half a mile in diameter.
“That is some more of Toplinsky’s work,” Michael explained. “He made that lake by shooting rockets filled with water from the Arctic Ocean. The rockets also contained liquid air and enough hydrogen and oxygen to protect the water from evaporation.”
Epworth sauntered down the companionway, and peeped out of the door. The colonists were again leaving the ship, protected by their air helmets.
“Does he expect to find hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements here?” Joan asked.
“He left orders for the men behind to continue to shoot the rockets filled with chemicals at a certain spot, gradually drawing eastward so as to enlarge the lake.”
“It is light enough here,” Epworth observed, “but I perceive that Toplinsky has landed in a spot where the country is shaded for ten miles by the high mountain on which he left his mirrors. That mountain must be six miles high.”
“Another part of his colonizing scheme,” Michael explained. “He thinks that if men can be protected from the rays of the sun the heat will not be unbearable during the long day.”
“I see.” Epworth was considerably astonished at the giant’s scientific ideas. “The shadow of the mountain will certainly moderate the heat, but I am yet to be convinced that he can generate enough heat with his mirrors and solar heaters to warm up the valley during the long night.”
“Leave it to him. See that long strip of light?”
Michael pointed to a narrow slit of sunlight that suddenly shot down from the top of the mountain. It came straight down like a ladder, piercing the darkness of its source and dropping down in brilliant coruscations on the rugged rocks on the west end of the little lake, and sweeping swiftly over the level stretch of land between the mountain and the lake. It brought brilliant light and heat.