Part 15 (1/2)
Joe in a Fit of Rage-The Death of a Good Man-The Night of watching by the Body-Barrenness and Drought-The Burial-The Quartz Rocks-Joe's Hallucinations-A Precious Ballast-A Survey of the Gold-bearing Mountains-The Beginning of Joe's Despair
A ht overspread the earth, and the missionary lay quietly asleep in utter exhaustion
”He'll not get over it!” sighed Joe ”Poor young fellow-scarcely thirty years of age!”
”He'll die in our ar weaker still, and I can do nothing to save hily
”The infa his teeth, in one of those fits of rage that ca intervals; ”and to think that, in spite of all, this good man could find words only to pity theiven hiht, Joe-his last on earth, perhaps! He will suffer but littleasleep”
The dying man uttered some broken words, and the doctor at once went to hi became difficult, and he asked for air The curtains were drawn entirely back, and he inhaled with rapture the light breezes of that clear, beautiful night The stars sent hi rays, and the ence
”My friends,” said he, in an enfeebled voice, ”I a you to your safe harbor! May he pay for ratitude that I owe to you!”
”Youfit of weakness You will not die How could any one die on this beautiful suht?”
”Death is at hand,” replied the missionary, ”I know it! Let s eternal, is but the end of earthly cares Place me upon my knees, my brethren, I beseech you!”
Kennedy lifted hi to see his weakened limbs bend under hi apostle, ”have pity on me!”
His countenance shone Far above that earth on which he had known no joys; in the ht which sent to him its softest radiance; on the way to that heaven tohich he uplifted his spirit, as though in a miraculous assumption, he seemed already to live and breathe in the new existence
His last gesture was a supre on his new friends of only one day Then he fell back into the arms of Kennedy, whose countenance was bathed in hot tears
”Dead!” said the doctor, bending over him, ”dead!” And with one coether in silent prayer
”To-morrow,” resumed the doctor, ”we shall bury him in the African soil which he has besprinkled with his blood”
During the rest of the night the body atched, turn by turn, by the three travellers, and not a word disturbed the sole
The next day the wind came from the south, and the balloon moved slowly over a vast plateau of mountains: there, were extinct craters; here, barren ravines; not a drop of water on those parched crests; piles of broken rocks; huge stony masses scattered hither and thither, and, interspersed hitish marl, all indicated the most complete sterility
Toward noon, the doctor, for the purpose of burying the body, decided to descend into a ravine, in the midst of sohis car to the ground, for there was no tree in sight to which he could make it fast
But, as he had explained to Kennedy, it was now i a quantity of gas proportionate to his loss of ballast at the time when he had rescued the missionary He therefore opened the valve of the outside balloon The hydrogen escaped, and the Victoria quietly descended into the ravine
As soon as the car touched the ground, the doctor shut the valve Joe leaped out, holding on the while to the ri up a quantity of stones equal to his oeight He could then use both hands, and had soon heaped into the car more than five hundred pounds of stones, which enabled both the doctor and Kennedy, in their turn, to get out Thus the Victoria found herself balanced, and her ascensional force insufficient to raise her
Moreover, it was not necessary to gather many of these stones, for the blocks were extremely heavy, so much so, indeed, that the doctor's attention was attracted by the circumstance The soil, in fact, was bestreith quartz and porphyritic rocks
”This is a singular discovery!” said the doctor, mentally
In the mean while, Kennedy and Joe had strolled away a few paces, looking up a proper spot for the grave The heat was extreme in this ravine, shut in as it was like a sort of furnace The noonday sun poured down its rays perpendicularly into it
The first thing to be done was to clear the surface of the fragrave had to be dug, so that the wild animals should not be able to disinter the corpse
The body of the martyred missionary was then solemnly placed in it The earth was thrown in over his remains, and above it masses of rock were deposited, in rude resemblance to a tomb
The doctor, however, remained motionless, and lost in his reflections He did not even heed the call of his companions, nor did he return with them to seek a shelter fro about, doctor?” asked Kennedy
”About a singular freak of Nature, a curious effect of chance Do you kno, in what kind of soil that man of self-denial, that poor one in spirit, has just been buried?”
”No! what do you mean, doctor?”
”That priest, who took the oath of perpetual poverty, now reposes in a gold-old-mine!” exclaiold-mine,” said the doctor, quietly ”Those blocks which you are traold-ore of great purity”
”Impossible! impossible!” repeated Joe
”You would not have to look long a peptites of considerable value”
Joe at once rushed like a crazyin following his example
”Keep cool, Joe,” said hisquite at your ease”
”What! a philosopher of your ood in this case!”
”Coood would all this wealth do you? We cannot carry any of it aith us”
”We can't take any of it with us, indeed?”
”It's rather too heavy for our car! I even hesitated to tell you any thing about it, for fear of exciting your regret!”
”What!” said Joe, again, ”abandon these treasures-a fortune for us!-really for us-our own-leave it behind!”
”Take care, old? Has not this dead ht you the vanity of huold! Mr Kennedy, won't you help to gather up a trifle of all these millions?”
”What could we do with them, Joe?” said the hunter, unable to repress a smile ”We did not come hither in search of fortune, and we cannot take one home with us”
”The millions are rather heavy, you know,” resumed the doctor, ”and cannot very easily be put into one's pocket”
”But, at least,” said Joe, driven to his last defences, ”couldn't we take soood! I consent,” said the doctor, ”but you must not make too many wry faces e come to throw some thousands of croorth overboard”
”Thousands of crowns!” echoed Joe; ”is it possible that there is so old in them, and that all this is the same?”