Part 14 (1/2)
”This is the idea, dick: you will adet to the prisoner, and throw out a quantity of ballast, equal to his weight, I shall have in nowise altered the equilibriuet a rapid ascension, so as to escape these savages, I etic than the cylinder Well, then, in throwing out this overplus of ballast at a given reat rapidity”
”That's plain enough”
”Yes; but there is one drawback: it consists in the fact that, in order to descend after that, I should have to part with a quantity of gas proportionate to the surplus ballast that I had thrown out Now, the gas is precious; but we le over it when the life of a fellow-creature is at stake”
”You are right, sir; wein our power to save hied on the rim of the car, so that they may be thrown overboard at one movement”
”But this darkness?”
”It hides our preparations, and will be dispersed only when they are finished Take care to have all our weapons close at hand Perhaps we may have to fire; so we have one shot in the rifle; four for the two muskets; twelve in the two revolvers; or seventeen in all, which ht be fired in a quarter of a minute But perhaps we shall not have to resort to all this noisy work Are you ready?”
”We're ready,” responded Joe
The sacks were placed as requested, and the arood!” said the doctor ”Have an eye to every thing Joe will see to throwing out the ballast, and dick will carry off the prisoner; but let nothing be done until I give the word Joe will first detach the anchor, and then quickly make his way back to the car”
Joe let himself slide down by the rope; and, in a few moments, reappeared at his post; while the balloon, thus liberated, hung almost motionless in the air
In the mean time the doctor assured hias in the -tank to feed the cylinder, if necessary, without there being any need of resorting for some time to the Buntzen battery He then took out the two perfectly-isolated conducting-wires, which served for the deco-sack, brought forth two pieces of charcoal, cut down to a sharp point, and fixed one at the end of each wire
His two friends looked on, without knohat he was about, but they kept perfectly silent When the doctor had finished, he stood up erect in the car, and, taking the two pieces of charcoal, one in each hand, drew their points nearly together
In a twinkling, an intense and dazzling light was produced, with an insupportable gloeen the two pointed ends of charcoal, and a huge jet of electric radiance literally broke the darkness of the night
”Oh!” ejaculated the astonished friends
”Not a word!” cautioned the doctor
CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND
The Jet of Light-The Missionary-The Rescue in a Ray of Electricity-A Lazarist Priest-But little Hope-The Doctor's Care-A Life of Self-Denial-Passing a Volcano
Dr Ferguson darted his powerful electric jet toward various points of space, and caused it to rest on a spot from which shouts of terror were heard His coerly on the place
The baobab, over which the balloon was hanging al, where, between fields of Indian-corn and sugar-cane, were seen some fifty low, conical huts, around which swarmed a numerous tribe
A hundred feet below the balloon stood a large post, or stake, and at its foot lay a hu black hair, half naked, wasted and wan, bleeding, covered ounds, his head bowed over upon his breast, as Christ's hen He hung upon the cross
The hair, cut shorter on the top of his skull, still indicated the place of a half-effaced tonsure
”A missionary! a priest!” exclaimed Joe
”Poor, unfortunate man!” said Kennedy
”We must save him, dick!” responded the doctor; ”we must save him!”
The crowd of blacks, when they saw the balloon over their heads, like a huge coht, were seized with a terror thattheir cries, the prisoner raised his head His eyes gleahly co place, he stretched out his hands to his unexpected deliverers
”He is alive!” exclaiot a fine scare, and we shall save him! Are you ready, friends?”
”Ready, doctor, at the word”
”Joe, shut off the cylinder!”
The doctor's order was executed An almost imperceptible breath of air impelled the balloon directly over the prisoner, at the saas For about tenin the ht down upon the throng his glowing sheaf of rays, which, here and there, ht The tribe, under the influence of an indescribable terror, disappeared little by little in the huts, and there was complete solitude around the stake The doctor had, therefore, been right in counting upon the fantastic appearance of the balloon throwing out rays, as vivid as the sun's, through this intense glooround; but a few of the savages,that their victim was about to escape from their clutches, came back with loud yells, and Kennedy seized his rifle The doctor, however, besought him not to fire
The priest, on his knees, for he had not the strength to stand erect, was not even fastened to the stake, his weakness rendering that precaution superfluous At the instant when the car was close to the ground, the brawny Scot, laying aside his rifle, and seizing the priest around the waist, lifted him into the car, while, at the same moment, Joe tossed over the two hundred pounds of ballast
The doctor had expected to ascend rapidly, but, contrary to his calculations, the balloon, after going up some three or four feet, remained there perfectly motionless
”What holds us?” he asked, with an accent of terror
So ferocious cries
”Ah, ha!” said Joe, ”one of those cursed blacks is hanging to the car!”
”dick! dick!” cried the doctor, ”the water-tank!”
Kennedy caught his friend's idea on the instant, and, snatching up with desperate strength one of the water-tanks weighing about one hundred pounds, he tossed it overboard The balloon, thus suddenly lightened, made a leap of three hundred feet into the air, as of the tribe whose prisoner thus escaped theht
”Hurrah!” shouted the doctor's comrades
Suddenly, the balloon took a fresh leap, which carried it up to an elevation of a thousand feet
”What's that?” said Kennedy, who had nearly lost his balance