Part 22 (1/2)
”Perhaps Joe is not lost after all,” he said ”He was a skilful lad, and had few equals as a swi across the Firth of Forth at Edinburgh We shall see hi on our part to give hirant it as you say, dick!” replied the doctor, within the world to find our lost friend again Let us, in the first place, see where we are But, above all things, let us rid the Victoria of this outside covering, which is of no further use That will relieve us of six hundred and fifty pounds, a weight not to be despised-and the end is worth the trouble!”
The doctor and Kennedy went to work at once, but they encountered great difficulty They had to tear the strong silk away piece by piece, and then cut it in narrow strips so as to extricate it from the meshes of the network The tear made by the beaks of the condors was found to be several feet in length
This operation took at least four hours, but at length the inner balloon once completely extricated did not appear to have suffered in the least degree The Victoria was thus diminished in size by one fifth, and this difference was sufficiently noticeable to excite Kennedy's surprise
”Will it be large enough?” he asked
”Have no fears on that score, I will reestablish the equilibrium, and should our poor Joe return we shall find a way to start off with hiain on our old route”
”At the moment of our fall, unless I am mistaken, ere not far from an island”
”Yes, I recollect it,” said the doctor, ”but that island, like all the islands on Lake Tchad, is, no doubt, inhabited by a gang of pirates and murderers They certainly witnessed our misfortune, and should Joe fall into their hands, ill become of him unless protected by their superstitions?”
”Oh, he's just the lad to get safely out of the scrape, I repeat I have great confidence in his shrewdness and skill”
”I hope so Now, dick, you et far ahatever you do It has beco necessity for us to renew our stock of provisions, since we had to sacrifice nearly all the old lot”
”Very good, doctor, I shall not be long absent”
Hereupon, Kennedy took a double-barrelled fowling-piece, and strode through the long grass toward a thicket not far off, where the frequent sound of shooting soon let the doctor know that the sportsuson was engaged in calculating the relative weight of the articles still left in the car, and in establishi+ng the equipoise of the second balloon He found that there were still left some thirty pounds of peallon and a half of brandy, and one empty water-tank All the dried meat had disappeared
The doctor are that, by the loss of the hydrogen in the first balloon, the ascensional force at his disposal was now reduced to about nine hundred pounds He therefore had to count upon this difference in order to rearrange his equilibrium The new balloon measured sixty-seven thousand cubic feet, and contained thirty-three thousand four hundred and eighty feet of gas The dilating apparatus appeared to be in good condition, and neither the battery nor the spiral had been injured
The ascensional force of the new balloon was then about three thousand pounds, and, in adding together the weight of the apparatus, of the passengers, of the stock of water, of the car and its accessories, and putting aboard fifty gallons of water, and one hundred pounds of fresh ht hundred and thirty pounds He could then take with him one hundred and seventy pounds of ballast, for unforeseen eencies, and the balloon would be in exact balance with the surrounding atly, and he ht with a surplus of ballast He spent the whole day in these preparations, and the latter were finished when Kennedy returned The hunter had been successful, and brought back a regular cargo of geese, wild-duck, snipe, teal, and plover He went to work at once to draw and sa over a fire of green wood When they seeood order, Kennedy, as perfectly at home in the business, packed them away in the car
On thesurprised our travellers in the midst of this work Their supper consisted of peiven theht theloo that they heard the voice of poor Joe; but, alas! the voice that they so longed to hear, was far away
”At the first streak of day, the doctor aroused Kennedy
”I have been long and carefully considering what should be done,” said he, ”to find our companion”
”Whatever your plan may be, doctor, it will suit s, it is important that Joe should hear from us in some way”
”Undoubtedly Suppose the brave fellow should take it into his head that we have abandoned hiht would never come into his mind But he must be infored?”
”We shall get into our car and be off again through the air”
”But, should the wind bear us away?”
”Happily, it will not See, dick! it is carrying us back to the lake; and this circumstance, which would have been vexatious yesterday, is fortunate now Our efforts, then, will be li ourselves above that vast sheet of water throughout the day Joe cannot fail to see us, and his eyes will be constantly on the lookout in that direction Perhaps he will even e to let us know the place of his retreat”
”If he be alone and at liberty, he certainly will”
”And if a prisoner,” resu the practice of the natives to confine their captives, he will see us, and comprehend the object of our researches”
”But, at last,” put in Kennedy-”for we -should we find no trace-if he should have left no mark to follow hiain the northern part of the lake, keeping ourselves as ht as possible There we'll wait; we'll explore the banks; we'll search the water's edge, for Joe will assuredly try to reach the shore; and ill not leave the country without having done every thing to find him”
”Let us set out, then!” said the hunter
The doctor hereupon took the exact bearings of the patch of solid land they were about to leave, and arrived at the conclusion that it lay on the north shore of Lake Tchad, between the village of Lari and the village of Inge this tih the neighboring marshes showed traces of the rhinoceros, the lamantine (or manatee), and the hippopotale speci, but not without great difficulty-which to Joe would have been nothing-the balloon's anchor was detached froas dilated, and the new Victoria rose two hundred feet into the air It see around, like a top; but at last a brisk current caught it, and it advanced over the lake, and was soon borne away at a speed of twenty ht of from two hundred to five hundred feet Kennedy frequently discharged his rifle; and, when passing over islands, the aeronauts approached the the thickets, the bushes, the underbrush-in fine, every spot where arock could have afforded a retreat to their coues that navigated the lake; and the wild fishere into the water and regain their islands with every sy,” said Kennedy, after two hours of search
”Let us wait a little longer, dick, and not lose heart We cannot be far away from the scene of our accident”
By eleven o'clock the balloon had gone ninetyalles to the other, drove thee and populous island, which the doctor took to be Farrauson expected at everyfor his life, and calling for help Were he free, they could pick him up without trouble; were he a prisoner, they could rescue hi the manoeuvre they had practised to save the ain; but nothing was seen, not a sound was heard The case seemed desperate
About half-past two o'clock, the Victoria hove in sight of Tangalia, a village situated on the eastern shore of Lake Tchad, where it marks the extreme point attained by Denham at the period of his exploration
The doctor beca of the wind in that direction, for he felt that he was being thrown back to the eastward, toward the centre of Africa, and the interion
”We ht For Joe's sake, particularly, we ought to go back to the lake; but, to begin with, let us endeavor to find an opposite current”
During more than an hour he searched at different altitudes: the balloon always caht of a thousand feet, a very violent breeze swept to the northard
It was out of the question that Joe should have been detained on one of the islands of the lake; for, in such case he would certainly have found means to ed to the ain caht of the northern shore of Lake Tchad
As for supposing that Joe had been drowned, that was not to be believed for a lanced across the minds of both Kennedy and the doctor: caymans swarm in these waters! But neither one nor the other had the courage to distinctly communicate this impression However, it came up to them so forcibly at last that the doctor said, without further preface: ”Crocodiles are found only on the shores of the islands or of the lake, and Joe will have skill enough to avoid theerous; and the Africans bathe with impunity, and quite fearless of their attacks”
Kennedythis terrible possibility
The doctorThe inhabitants were at work gathering in their cotton-crop in front of their huts, constructed of woven reeds, and standing in the midst of clean and neatly-kept enclosures This collection of about fifty habitations occupied a slight depression of the soil, in a valley extending between t mountains The force of the wind carried the doctor farther onward than he wanted to go; but it changed a second ti-point, on the sort of enclosed island where he had passed the preceding night The anchor, instead of catching the branches of the tree, took hold in the masses of reeds mixed with the thick mud of the marshes, which offered considerable resistance
The doctor had th the wind died aith the setting in of nightfall; and the two friends kept watch together in an almost desperate state of mind
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURTH