Part 16 (2/2)
”I, doctor, I'norant than I of the perils of the enterprise, but I did not want to see them, from the moment that you determined to brave them Under present circuo clear to the end Besides, to return looks to me quite as perilous as the other course So onward, then! you allant friends!” replied the doctor, with , ”I expected such devotion as this; but I needed these encouraging words Yet, once again, thank you, from the bottom of rasped each other by the hand
”Now, hearto my solar observations, we are not more than three hundred miles from the Gulf of Guinea; the desert, therefore, cannot extend indefinitely, since the coast is inhabited, and the country has been explored for some distance back into the interior If needs be, we can direct our course to that quarter, and it seems out of the question that we should not come across some oasis, or some well, where we could replenish our stock of water But, ant now, is the wind, for without it we are held here suspended in the air at a dead calnation,” said the hunter
But, each of the party, in his turn, vainly scanned the space around hi could be seen to form the basis of a hope The very last inequalities of the soil disappeared with the setting sun, whose horizontal rays stretched in long lines of fire over the flat imone a distance of fifteenday, one hundred and thirty-five cubic feet of gas to feed the cylinder, and two pints of water out of the reht had been sacrificed to the deht passed quietly-too quietly, indeed, but the doctor did not sleep!
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH
A Little Philosophy-A Cloud on the Horizon-In the Midst of a Fog-The Strange Balloon-An Exact View of the Victoria-The Palm-Trees-Traces of a Caravan-The Well in the Midst of the Desert
On the morrow, there was the same purity of sky, the same stillness of the atmosphere The balloon rose to an elevation of five hundred feet, but it had scarcely changed its position to the ard in any perceptible degree
”We are right in the open desert,” said the doctor ”Look at that vast reach of sand! What a strange spectacle! What a singular arrangement of nature! Why should there be, in one place, such extreetation yonder, and here, this extreme aridity, and that in the same latitude, and under the same rays of the sun?”
”The why concerns me but little,” answered Kennedy, ”the reason interestsis so; that's the important part of it!”
”Oh, it is well to philosophize a little, dick; it does no harm”
”Let us philosophize, then, if you will; we have ti; the wind is afraid to blow; it sleeps”
”That will not last forever,” put in Joe; ”I think I see soht!” said the doctor, after he had taken a look
”Good!” said Kennedy; ”now for our clouds, with a fine rain, and a fresh wind to dash it into our faces!”
”Well, we'll see, dick, we'll see!”
”But this is Friday, master, and I'm afraid of Fridays!”
”Well, I hope that this very day you'll get over those notions”
”I hope so, ood thing, especially in winter, but in summer it don't do to take too much of it”
”Don't you fear the effect of the sun's heat on our balloon?” asked Kennedy, addressing the doctor
”No! the gutta-percha coating resists her temperatures than even this With my spiral I have subjected it inside to as rees so does not appear to have suffered”
”A cloud! a real cloud!” shouted Joe at this lasses
And, in fact, a thick bank of vapor, now quite distinct, could be seen slowly e above the horizon It appeared to be very deep, and, as it were, puffed out It was, in reality, a conglomeration of sinal formation, and from this circumstance the doctor concluded that there was no current of air in their collected mass
This coht o'clock in the ht of the sun's disk The latter then disappeared entirely behind the murky veil, and the lower belt of cloud, at the saain disclosed in a full blaze of daylight
”It's only an isolated cloud,” remarked the doctor ”It won't do to count much upon that”
”Look, dick, its shape is just the sa!”
”Then, doctor, there's to be neither rain nor wind, at least for us!”
”I fear so; the cloud keeps at a great height”
”Well, doctor, suppose ere to go in pursuit of this cloud, since it refuses to burst upon us?”
”I fancy that to do so wouldn't help us as, and, consequently, of water, to little purpose; but, in our situation, weuntried; therefore, let us ascend!”
And with this, the doctor put on a full head of flaen, occasioned by such sudden and intense heat, sent the balloon rapidly aloft
About fifteen hundred feet froround, it encountered an opaque , suspended at that elevation; but it did notseeht in contact with it were scarcely daree The balloon, coained a little increase of speed, perhaps, and that was all
The doctor gloo success he had obtained fro into deep meditation, when he heard Joe exclaim, in tones of most intense astonishment: ”Ah! by all that's beautiful!”
”What's thecurious!”
”What is it, then?”
”We are not alone, up here! There are rogues about! They've stolen our invention!”
”Has he gone crazy?” asked Kennedy
Joe stood there, perfectly motionless, the very picture of amazement
”Can the hot sun have really affected the poor fellow's brain?” said the doctor, turning toward hi to a certain quarter of the sky