Part 17 (2/2)
”The cylinder can work only six hours longer; and, if in that ti of water, God alone knoill beco, master,” said Joe; ”but it will co the doctor's ill-concealed depression
Vain hope! The atmosphere was in a dead calm-one of those calms which hold vessels captive in tropical seas The heat had become intolerable; and the ther, indicated one hundred and thirteen degrees
Joe and Kennedy, reclining at full length near each other, tried, if not in sluet their situation, for their forced inactivity gave them periods of leisure far from pleasant That loomy reflections by actual work, or so to look after, nothing to undertake, and they had to sub it in their power to aan to be severely felt; brandy, far froer's milk” applied to it by the African natives Scarcely two pints of water remained, and that was heated Each of the party devoured the few precious drops with his gaze, yet neither of them dared to moisten his lips with them Two pints of water in the uson, buried in meditation, asked himself whether he had acted with prudence Would he not have done better to have kept the water that he had decomposed in pure loss, in order to sustain hiained a little distance, to be sure; but was he any nearer to his journey's end? What difference did sixty ion, when there was no water to be had where they were? The wind, should it rise, would blow there as it did here, only less strongly at this point, if it caed hiallons of water, expended in vain, would have sufficed for nine days' halt in the desert And what changes ht not have occurred in nine days! Perhaps, too, while retaining the water, heout ballast, at the cost ain to descend But the gas in his balloon was his blood, his very life!
A thousand one such reflections whirled in succession through his brain; and, resting his head between his hands, he sat there for hours without raising it
”We must make one final effort,” he said, at last, about ten o'clock in the”We must endeavor, just once more, to find an atmospheric current to bear us away from here, and, to that end, must risk our last resources”
Therefore, while his coen in the balloon to an elevated te out by the dilation of the gas, rose straight up in the perpendicular rays of the sun The doctor searched vainly for a breath of wind, froht of one hundred feet to that of five ht below hin, up to the extreth the feeding-supply of water gave out; the cylinder was extinguished for lack of gas; the Buntzen battery ceased to work, and the balloon, shrinking together, gently descended to the sand, in the very place that the car had hollowed out there
It was noon; and solar observations gave nineteen degrees thirty-five rees fifty-one minutes north latitude, or nearly five hundred miles from Lake Tchad, and more than four hundred miles froround, Kennedy and Joe awoke from their stupor
”We have halted,” said the Scot
”We had to do so,” replied the doctor, gravely
His companions understood him The level of the soil at that point corresponded with the level of the sea, and, consequently, the balloon remained in perfect equilibriuht of the three travellers was replaced with an equivalent quantity of sand, and they got out of the car Each was absorbed in his own thoughts; and formeal, which consisted of biscuit and pemmican, and was hardly tasted by either of the party Awater frolooht none of them kept awake; yet none could be precisely said to have slept On the morrow there remained only half a pint of water, and this the doctor put away, all three having resolved not to touch it until the last extre, however, before Joe exclai worse! I' the therrees!”
”The sand scorches h it had just come out of a furnace; and not a cloud in this sky of fire It's enough to drive one mad!”
”Let us not despair,” responded the doctor ”In this latitude these intense heats are invariably followed by stor Notwithstanding this disheartening clearness of the sky, great ates may take place in less than an hour”
”But,” asked Kennedy, ”is there any sign whatever of that?”
”Well,” replied the doctor, ”I think that there is soht symptom of a fall in the barometer”
”May Heaven hearken to you, Saround, like a bird with broken wings”
”With this difference, however, s are unhurt, and I hope that we shall be able to use theh to carry us to a streah, and, ater, we could wait a !”
It was not thirst alone, but the unchanging sight of the desert, that fatigued the mind There was not a variation in the surface of the soil, not a hillock of sand, not a pebble, to relieve the gaze This unbroken level discouraged the beholder, and gave him that kind of malady called the ”desert-sickness” The impassible monotony of the arid blue sky, and the vast yellow expanse of the desert-sand, at length produced a sensation of terror In this inflamed atmosphere the heat appeared to vibrate as it does above a blazing hearth, while thethe li should ever end, since immensity is a species of eternity
Thus, at last, our hapless travellers, deprived of water in this torrid heat, began to feel symptoms of mental disorder Their eyes swelled in their sockets, and their gaze becaht ca tendency by rapid walking His idea was to pace the sandy plain for a few hours, not in search of any thing, but si!” he said to his coood”
”Out of the question!” said Kennedy; ”I could not walk a step”
”And I,” said Joe, ”would rather sleep!”
”But sleep, or even rest, would be dangerous to you, ainst this tendency to stupor Co with them, and, therefore, set off alone, aht The first few steps he took were painful, for they were the steps of an enfeebledHowever, he quickly saw that the exercise would be beneficial to him, and pushed on several miles to the ard Once in rapid reatly cheered, when, suddenly, a vertigo cae of an abyss; his knees bent under him; the vast solitude struck terror to his heart; he found himself the minute mathematical point, the centre of an infinite circu! The balloon had disappeared entirely in the deepening gloom The doctor, cool, impassible, reckless explorer that he was, felt himself at last seized with a nameless dread He strove to retrace his steps, but in vain He called aloud Not even an echo replied, and his voice died out in the e space, like a pebble cast into a botto, on the sand, alone, aht he came to, in the arms of his faithful follower, Joe The latter, uneasy at his ed absence, had set out after hi him by the clear i in a swoon
”What has been the , Joe, nothing! Only a touch of weakness, that's all It's over now”
”Oh! it won't aet up on your feet, if you can There! lean upon et back to the balloon”
And the doctor, leaning on Joe's ar the track by which he had come
”You were too bold, sir; it won't do to run such risks You”But, sir, co to you”
”WeOur present situation cannot last et no wind, we are lost”
The doctor made no reply
”Well, then, one of us ood of all, and it is most natural that it should fall to me to do so”
”What have you to propose? What is your plan?”
”A very siht on until I come to some place, as I must do, sooner or later In the ood wind, you need not wait, but can start again For h with a few Arabic words that you can write foryou help or lose my hide What do you think of my plan?”
”It is absolute folly, Joe, but worthy of your noble heart The thing is impossible You will not leave us”
”But, sir, we , and this plan can't do you any harain, you need not wait; and then, after all, I may succeed”
”No, Joe, no! We will not separate That would only be adding sorrow to trouble It ritten that matters should be as they are; and it is very probably written that it shall be quite otherwise by-and-by Let us wait, then, with resignation”
”So be it, er, and I'll not wait after that To-day is Sunday; we , and if we don't get off by Tuesday, I'll run the risk I've made up my mind to that!”
The doctor ot back to the car, where he took his place beside Kennedy, who lay there plunged in silence so complete that it could not be considered sleep