Part 16 (1/2)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH
The Wind dies away-The Vicinity of the Desert-The Mistake in the Water-Supply-The Nights of the Equator-Dr Ferguson's Anxieties-The Situation flatly stated-Energetic Replies of Kennedy and Joe-One Nightbeen made fast to a solitary tree, alion in which it stood, passed the night in perfect quietness; and the travellers were enabled to enjoy a little of the repose which they so greatly needed The emotions of the day had left sad i, the sky had resumed its brilliant purity and its heat The balloon ascended, and, after several ineffectual atteh not rapid, bore theress,” said the doctor ”If I am not mistaken, we have accomplished nearly half of our journey in ten days; but, at the rate at which we are going, it would take months to end it; and that is all the more vexatious, that we are threatened with a lack of water”
”But we'll find soht of that we shouldn't discover some river, some stream, or pond, in all this vast extent of country”
”I hope so”
”Now don't you think that it's Joe's cargo of stone that is keeping us back?”
Kennedy asked this question only to tease Joe; and he did so the ly because he had, for aany thing in the-h
Joe cast a lance at hi, not without secret terror, probably, of the vast solitudes of Sahara-for there whole weeks sole spring of water Occupied with these thoughts, he scrutinized every depression of the soil with the closest attention
These anxieties, and the incidents recently occurring, had not been without their effect upon the spirits of our three travellers They conversed less, and were hts
Joe, clever lad as he was, seeed into that ocean of gold He kept entirely silent, and gazed incessantly upon the stony fragments heaped up in the car-worthless to-day, but of inestimable value to-morrow
The appearance of this part of Africa was, radually expanding around thee was to be seen-not even a collection of a few huts; and vegetation also was disappearing Barely a fearf plants could now be noticed, like those on the wild heaths of Scotland; then carayish sand and flint, with here and there a lentisk tree and brambles In the midst of this sterility, the rudies of sharply-jutting rock These syreatly disquieted Dr Ferguson
It seeh no caravan had ever braved this desert expanse, or it would have left visible traces of its enca of the kind was to be seen, and the aeronauts felt that, ere long, an iion
However, there was no going back; theybetter; he would even have welcomed a tempest to carry him beyond this country But, there was not a cloud in the sky At the close of the day, the balloon had not made thirty miles
If there had been no lack of water! But, there reallon, destined to quench the burning thirst that a heat of ninety degrees rendered intolerable Two gallons only then remained to supply the cylinder Hence, they could produce no as; yet the cylinder consumed about nine cubic feet per hour Consequently, they could not keep on longer than fifty-four hours-and all this was a mathematical calculation!
”Fifty-four hours!” said the doctor to his coht, for fear of passing some strea during which we ht it my duty to make you aware of the real state of the case, as I have retained only one gallon for drinking, and we shall have to put ourselves on the shortest allowance”
”Put us on short allowance, then, doctor,” responded Kennedy, ”but we must not despair We have three days left, you say?”
”Yes,over the h to decide upon what is to be done; in the ilance!”
At their evening meal, the water was strictly measured out, and the brandy was increased in quantity in the punch they drank But they had to be careful with the spirits, the latter being more likely to produce than to quench thirst
The car rested, during the night, upon an iht was scarcely eight hundred feet above the level of the sea This circuave the doctor soraphers concerning the existence of a vast stretch of water in the centre of Africa But, if such a lake really existed, the point was to reach it, and not a sign of change was visible in the nificence succeeded the unchanging daylight and the blazing rays of the sun; and, fro At five o'clock in the nal for departure, and, for a considerable time, the balloon remained iht have escaped this intense heat by rising into a higher range, but, in order to do so, he would have had to consu that had now beco the balloon at one hundred feet froround, and, at that elevation, a feeble current drove it toward the western horizon
The breakfast consisted of a little dried meat and pemmican By noon, the Victoria had advanced only a few o any faster,” said the doctor; ”we no longer command-we have to obey”
”Ah! doctor, here is one of those occasions when a propeller would not be a thing to be despised”
”Undoubtedly so, dick, provided it would not require an expenditure of water to put it in motion, for, in that case, the situation would be precisely the sa practical of the sort has been invented Balloons are still at that point where shi+ps were before the invention of steam It took six thousand years to invent propellers and screws; so we have ti away the perspiration that was strea from his forehead
”If we had water, this heat would be of service to us, for it dilates the hydrogen in the balloon, and dih it is true that, if ere not short of the useful liquid, we should not have to econoe who cost us the tank!”
The water-tank had been thrown overboard when the native clung to the car
”You don't regret, though, what you did, doctor?”
”No, dick, since it was in our power to save that unfortunate missionary from a horrible death But, the hundred pounds of water that we threw overboard would be very useful to us now; it would be thirteen or fourteen days h to carry us over this desert”
”We've made at least half the journey, haven't we?” asked Joe
”In distance, yes; but in duration, no, should the wind leave us; and it, even now, has a tendency to die away altogether”
”Coot along pretty well, thus far, and whatever happens to et desperate We'll find water; mind, I tell you so”
The soil, however, ran lower fro mountains they had left died away into the plain, like the last throes of exhausted Nature Scanty grass took the place of the fine trees of the east; only a few belts of half-scorched herbage still contended against the invasion of the sand, and the huge rocks, that had rolled down from the distant sued pebbles which soon again became coarse sand, and finally impalpable dust
”Here, at last, is Africa, such as you pictured it to yourself, Joe! Was I not right in saying, 'Wait a little?' eh?”
”Well, master, it's all natural, at least-heat and dust It would be foolish to look for any thing else in such a country Do you see,” he added, laughing, ”I had no confidence, for my part, in your forests and your prairies; they were out of reason What was the use of coland? Here's the first tiet a taste of it”
Toward evening, the doctor calculated that the balloon had notday, and a heated gloom closed in upon it, as soon as the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, which was traced against the sky with all the precision of a straight line
The next day was Thursday, the 1st of May, but the days followed each other with desperatewas like the one that had preceded it; noon poured down the saht condensed in its shadow the scattered heat which the ensuing day would again bequeath to the succeeding night The wind, now scarcely observable, was rather a gasp than a breath, and the asp would cease
The doctor reacted against the gloominess of the situation and retained all the coolness and self-possession of a disciplined heart With his glass he scrutinized every quarter of the horizon; he saw the last rising ground gradually etation disappearing, while, before him, stretched the i upon him pressed sorely, but he did not allow his disquiet to appear Those two men, dick and Joe, friends of his, both of them, he had induced to come with him almost by the force alone of friendshi+p and of duty Had he done well in that? Was it not like atte to tread forbidden paths? Was he not, in this trip, trying to pass the borders of the ies the knowledge of this inhospitable continent?
All these thoughts, of the kind that arise in hours of discouragement, succeeded each other and multiplied in his mind, and, by an irresistible association of ideas, the doctor allowed hiic and of reason After having established in his own mind what he should NOT have done, the next question hat he should do, then Would it be iher up that would waft hiard to the countries over which he had passed, he was utterly ignorant of those to co aloud to him, he resolved, in his turn, to speak frankly to his two companions He thereupon laid the whole state of the case plainly before them; he showed them what had been done, and what there was yet to do; at the worst, they could return, or attempt it, at least-What did they think about it?
”I have no other opinion than that of my excellent master,” said Joe; ”what he may have to suffer, I can suffer, and that better than he can, perhaps Where he goes, there I'll go!”
”And you, Kennedy?”