Roy Rockwood

“ The wanderers looked at each other with fear on their faces. What dreadful mystery were they about to penetrate? "Let's cross the bridge," suggested Jack, in a low voice. "Maybe this marks the end of desolation. Perhaps we may find life and food across the crater."
"But—but the petrified man!" gasped Mark.
"What of it? He won't hurt us. Maybe there are live men, who will take care of us, beyond there," and Jack pointed across the bridge of stone. ”

“ Already the main shaft was smoking with the heat of friction.
"Look! look!" whispered Mark hoarsely.
"One hundred and fifty-three miles a second!" exclaimed Jack. "You've done it, Professor Roumann!"
"Yes, I have," spoke the German, with a sigh of satisfaction. "That is faster than mortal man ever travelled before, and I think no one will ever equal our speed. We have broken all records—even our own. Now I will slow down, but we must do it gradually, so as not to strain the machinery."
He slipped back the speed lever, notch by notch. ”

“ The road over the crater came to an end between two peaks, similar to those at the beginning. Jack was the first to pass them, and as he emerged he once more uttered a cry—a cry of fear and wonder.
And well he might, for in a valley below the wanderers there was a city. A great city, with wonderful buildings, with wide streets well laid out—a city in which figures of many men and women could be seen—little children too! A fair city, teeming with life, it seemed! ”

“ CHAPTER II SOMETHING ABOUT OUR HEROES "Are you in earnest in proposing this trip?" asked Professor Henderson of Jack. The lad, with flushed face and bright eyes, stood in the centre of the apartment, holding the paper which the aged scientist had returned to him.
"I certainly am," was the reply. "It ought not to be a difficult undertaking, after our trip to the North Pole through the air, the one to the South Pole under water, our journey to the centre of the earth, and our flight to Mars. Why, a trip to the moon ought to be a little pleasure jaunt, like an automobile tour. ”

“ With the temperature at twenty-eight when the sun was shining, what might it not fall to in the darkness? The terrible cold of the arctic regions might be nothing compared to the frostiness of the dead moon in the shadow. Their fur garments, thick as they were, might be no more protection than so much paper. And they had no means of making a fire, nor anything to burn on one had they been capable of kindling it, for Andy had used the last of his cartridges to blast with, and where everything was petrified there was no wood. ”

“ Can't we go, Professor?"
"From the standpoint of possibility, I presume we could make a trip to the moon," the scientist admitted. "It would not take so long, nor would it be as dangerous, as was our trip to Mars. And yet, I don't know that I care to go. I am getting along in years, and I have money enough to live on. Even a field of diamonds hardly sounds attractive to me." Jack's face showed the disappointment he felt.
"And yet," went on the aged scientist with a smile, "there are certain attractions about another trip through space. ”

“ Mark looked at his watch, and found that he would still have some time to linger before he could expect Jack to return. He sat down on a stone beside the fence, and looked about him. The day was warm for fall, and the last of the crickets were chirping away, while, in distant fields, men could be seen husking corn, or drawing in loads of yellow pumpkins.
"I wonder if we'll have pumpkin pie on the moon," thought Mark. "Though, of course, we won't. I guess all we'll have to eat will be what Washington takes along in the projectile—that is, unless we find people on the other side of the place." ”

“ But it will be interesting to see if there are people on the moon."
"If there are any, they must have a queer time," went on Mark.
"Why?" asked Jack, who wasn't very fond of study.
"Why? Because the moon is only about one forty-ninth the size of the earth. Its diameter is 2,163 miles—only a quarter of the earth's—and, comparing the force of gravity, ours is much greater. A body that weighs six pounds on the earth, would weigh only one pound on the moon, and a man on the moon could jump six times as high as he can on this earth, and throw a stone six times as far." ”

“ There were no long ranges of rugged peaks, though, but rather scattered pinnacles and deep hollows, great craters adjoining immense, towering steeples of rocks, with comparatively level ground in between.
The life-torches worked to perfection. As our friends carried them, there arose about their bodies a cloud of invisible vapor, which, however, was as great a protection from the poisonous gases as a coat of mail would have been.
"This is great!" exclaimed Jack. "It's much better than to have to put on a diving-suit and carry a cylinder of oxygen or compressed air about on our shoulders." ”

“ And as for water, I'd give a handful of diamonds, if I had them, for half a glass of even warm water."
"Yes, we do need food and water badly," said Andy.
"Then let's look for it," suggested Jack. "If we can find food in any of these houses or shops, I don't believe the people will care if we take it."
"Find food here?" cried Mark. "Why, you must be crazy! All the food is turned to stone, and what isn't would be spoiled! Why, no one has been alive here for thousands and thousands of years!" ”

“ Henderson. "As there is no atmosphere fit to breathe on the moon, we have been forced to make our own, boys. You each hold what may be called torches of life. To venture out without them would mean instant death by suffocation or poison."
"And will these save our lives?" asked Mark.
"Yes," said Mr. Roumann. "In the iron boxes on those rods are certain chemicals, rich in oxygen and other elements, which, when brought in contact with the gases on the moon, will dispel a cloud of air about whoever carries them—air such as we find on our earth. ”

“ Mark had placed some pieces of his fur coat under the rope where it passed over the edge of the mouth of the crater to prevent the jagged rocks from cutting the strips of hide.
"Here you come!" he cried to Jack, and he began to haul, taking care to keep his own head near his torch, which was stuck upright. Mark had spoken truly when he said he possessed much more than his usual strength. Any one who has tried to haul up a person with a rope from a hole, and with no pulleys to adjust the strain of the cable, knows what a task it is. But to Mark, on the moon, it was comparatively easy. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVII THE BLACK POOL "What are you going to do, Andy?" asked Jack, as he watched the old hunter.
"What am I going to do? Why, I'm going to blast out some of this meat, that's what I'm going to do! I heard you boys talking about elephants and other things being preserved for centuries in a cake of ice, and, if that's true, why won't the meat in this petrified city be preserved just as well? It's always below freezing here, and that's cold enough."
"But the meat has turned to stone," objected Mark. ”

“ The muscles are unaccustomed to the strain. The German scientist, though a strong man, had to rest at frequent intervals.
"We're falling rapidly," announced Jack, in a low voice, as he looked at the height gauge.
"I am doing all I can," answered Mr. Roumann. "I think I will soon be able to right the craft."
He labored desperately, but he was at a disadvantage, for the Annihilator was not now moving smoothly through space. With the stopping of the motor she was falling like some wobbly balloon, swaying hither and thither in the ether currents. ”

“ Mark soon got rid of the tramp clothes, and donned an extra suit which had been packed in his trunk in the projectile. Then he helped replace the broken window, which, in spite of their haste, took nearly all the rest of the day to put in place.
"Shall we wait and start to-morrow?" asked Jack, when four o'clock came. "It will soon be dark."
"Darkness will make no difference to us," announced Professor Roumann. "Our Cardite motor will soon take us out of the shadow of the earth, and we will be in perpetual sunshine until we reach the moon. As we are all ready, we might as well start now." ”

“ CHAPTER VIII JACK IS PUZZLED Whistling merrily, with his mind as much on the big field of diamonds he expected to discover on the moon, as it was on anything else, Jack Darrow crossed over the meadows toward the telegraph office.
"By Jinks! It certainly will be great to fly through space once more," he mused. "Of course it isn't much of a trip, only a quarter of a million miles at most, but it will be a little outing for us, and then those diamonds!" ”

“ What he saw caused him to cry out in surprise.
"I say, Mark, look here! There's the moon over there. We're not heading for it at all!"
"By Jove! You're right!" agreed his chum. "We're off our course!"
"We must tell Professor Henderson!" cried Jack. "I'll do it. You stay here and watch things."
A few seconds later a very much alarmed youth was rapidly talking to the two scientists, who were in the pilot-house.
"Some unknown force must have pulled us off our course," Jack was saying. "The moon is away off to one side of us."
To his surprise, instead of being alarmed, Mr. Roumann only smiled. ”

“ Why, we're only going about twenty miles a second," and he spoke as if that was a mere nothing.
"Twenty miles is some speed," observed Mark.
"The earth goes around the sun at the rate of nineteen miles a second, or about seventy-five times as fast as the swiftest cannon-ball, so you see, Jack, you are 'going some,' as the boys say."
"Yes, but we went much faster when we went to Mars. Still, no matter how fast we travel, you'd never realize it inside here." ”

“ In a few moments the boys at the Cardite motor heard the hum, the throb and crackling that told them that the repelling apparatus was at work.
But would it act in time? Or would the meteor prove too powerful for it? And, if it did, would the two scientists be able to steer the swiftly moving projectile out of the way of the big, black stone, as the old hunter called it?
These were questions that showed on the faces of the two lads as they bent over the motor.
"We're only going fifty miles a second now," whispered Jack.
Mark nodded his head. "Can't you pull the lever over faster?" he asked. ”

“ It was an anxious assemblage that gathered inside the big shed the next day, to watch Professor Roumann try the Cardite motor. Would it work as well as had the Etherium one? Would it send them along through space at enormous speed? True, they would not have to travel so far, nor so fast, but more power would be needed, since, as it was feared no food, water, nor air could be had on the moon, many more supplies were to be taken along than on the trip to Mars, and this made the projectile heavier. ”

“ What's the good of even carrying any away. We can never use them."
"That's so," agreed Jack, in a low voice. "I might as well leave them here."
But somehow the desire to pick up gems which, when they were cut and polished, would rival many of the famous diamonds of history was too strong to be resisted. Though he was afraid he would never get back to earth to enjoy them, Jack could not help putting in his pockets a goodly supply of the largest of the precious stones. Andy did the same, and Mark, in spite of his gloomy feelings, stuffed his pockets. ”

“ I should say it was good!" exclaimed Mark. "I wish there was more of it! What happened to the rock of meat, Andy?"
"I used too heavy a charge, and it blew all to pieces. I'll know better next time. There are lots more chunks of meat, and we'll soon have a feast. I'll make another bombshell."
He worked rapidly while Jack sampled some of the shreds of meat that had been scattered about by the explosion. The beef was perfectly cooked, and in spite of its great age it was as fresh and palatable as frozen meat ever is. ”

“ Henderson announced: "Friends, we will land on the moon in half an hour. Get ready."
"Are we really going to be walking around the moon inside of thirty minutes?" asked Mark.
"I don't know about walking around on it," answered the German. "We first have to see if there is an atmosphere there for us to breathe, and whether the temperature is such as we can stand. But the Annihilator will soon be there."
The speed of the Cardite motor was increased, and so rapidly did the projectile approach Luna that glasses were no longer needed to distinguish the surface of the moon. ”

“ You will never get to the moon. I shall have my revenge. You took my brother Fred Axtell to Mars and left him there. I determined to get him back, and to that end I disguised myself as one of the boys, and got aboard. When we were safely away from the earth, I would have compelled you to go to Mars and rescue my brother. ”

“ As the Annihilator has been fully described in the volume entitled, "Through Space to Mars," there is no need to dwell at any length on the construction of the projectile in which our friends hoped to travel to the moon. Sufficient to say that it was a sort of enclosed airship, capable of travelling through space—that is, air or ether—at enormous speed, that there were contained within it many complicated machines, some for operating the projectile, some for offence or defence against enemies, such as electric guns, apparatus for making air or water, and scores of scientific instruments. ”

“ Would they be able to find a place to land, or would they go hurtling down into some awful crater, or be dashed upon the sharp peak of some mountain of the moon?
It was a momentous question, and anxious were the faces of the two professors.
"Mr. Henderson, if you will undertake to steer to some level place, I will take charge of the motor," suggested Mr. Roumann. "I will gradually reduce the speed, and get the repelling machine in readiness, so as to render our landing gentle."
"Very well," responded the aged scientist, as he grasped the steering wheel. ”

“ Think of looking at a city street teeming with life, men and women hurrying here and there, dogs running about, children at their play, and then suddenly seeing that same street become as dead as some mountain, with the people represented as stones on that same mountain, and you can get some idea of what our friends looked upon. ”