Part 15 (2/2)
”Yes, my friend, this is a reservoir in which Nature has been heaping up her wealth for centuries! There is enough here to enrich whole nations! An Australia and a California both together in the midst of the wilderness!”
”And the whole of it is to remain useless!”
”Perhaps! but at all events, here's what I'll do to console you”
”That would be rather difficult to do!” said Joe, with a contrite air
”Listen! I will take the exact bearings of this spot, and give theland, you can tell our countrymen about it, and let theold would ive up; I see that you are right, and that there is nothing else to be done Let us fill our car with the precious mineral, and what remains at the end of the trip will be so much made”
And Joe went to work He did so, too, with all his ht, and soon had collected old enclosed as though in an extremely hard crystal casket
The doctor watched his, and found that the rees twenty-three rees fifty-five lance at the swelling of the soil, beneath which the body of the poor Frenchman reposed, he went back to his car
He would have erected a plain, rude cross over the tomb, left solitary thus in the midst of the African deserts, but not a tree was to be seen in the environs
”God will recognize it!” said Kennedy
An anxiety of another sort now began to steal over the doctor's old before him for a little water-for he had to replace what had been thrown overboard when the negro was carried up into the air But it was iions; and this reflection gave hireat uneasiness He had to feed his cylinder continually; and he even began to find that he had not enough to quench the thirst of his party Therefore he deter his supply
Upon getting back to the car, he found it burdened with the quartz-blocks that Joe's greed had heaped in it He got in, however, without saying any thing Kennedy took his custo a covetous glance at the treasures in the ravine
The doctor rekindled the light in the cylinder; the spiral becaen caas dilated; but the balloon did not stir an inch
Joe looked on uneasily, but kept silent
”Joe!” said the doctor
Joe made no reply
”Joe! Don't you hear n that he heard; but he would not understand
”Do me the kindness to throw out soave ave you leave to replace the ballast; that was all!”
”But-”
”Do you want to stay forever in this desert?”
Joe cast a despairing look at Kennedy; but the hunter put on the air of ain the matter
”Well, Joe?”
”Then your cylinder don't work,” said the obstinate fellow
”My cylinder? It is lit, as you perceive But the balloon will not rise until you have thrown off a little ballast”
Joe scratched his ear, picked up a piece of quartz, the shed it, and tossed it up and down in his hand It was a fragment of about three or four pounds At last he threw it out
But the balloon did not budge
”Hu up yet”
”Not yet,” said the doctor ”Keep on throwing”
Kennedy laughed Joe now threw out soot very pale
”Poor fellow!” said the doctor ”Mr Kennedy, you and I weigh, unless I aet rid of at least that weight, since it was put in here to make up for us”
”Throay four hundred pounds!” said Joe, piteously
”And soe, Joe!”
The brave fellow, heaving deep sighs, began at last to lighten the balloon; but, fro up?”
”No, not yet,” was the invariable response
”It moves!” said he, at last
”Keep on!” replied the doctor
”It's going up; I'm sure”
”Keep on yet,” said Kennedy
And Joe, picking up one more block, desperately tossed it out of the car The balloon rose a hundred feet or so, and, aided by the cylinder, soon passed above the surrounding summits
”Now, Joe,” resumed the doctor, ”there still remains a handsome fortune for you; and, if we can only keep the rest of this with us until the end of our trip, there you are-rich for the balance of your days!”
Joe made no answer, but stretched himself out luxuriously on his heap of quartz
”See, my dear dick!” the doctor went on ”Just see the power of this metal over the cleverest lad in the world! What passions, what greed, what crie of such a mine as that would cause! It is sad to think of it!”
By evening the balloon had made ninety miles to the ard, and was, in a direct line, fourteen hundred miles from Zanzibar