Roy Rockwood

“ To you space and the flight of time are merely words. You can overcome both if you try. I need somebody to go to the northern part of Alaska—that is, beyond the Endicott Range—to obtain this rare plant for me. You have already flown over the North Pole and a trip which carries one only three or four degrees beyond the Arctic Circle is a mere bagatelle to you."
"Yes! it is in you I place my hope, Professor. The hopes of many, many afflicted people may be placed in you, too. I ask you to fly to this distant place and obtain for me the herb that will do humanity such great good. ”

“ Jack cried. "Washington's jumping and the lightness of all objects! I see. This fragment of the earth—this island in the air, as you call it, Professor—is large enough to possess some powers of attraction of its own; but not as much as the earth. I wonder how large it really is?"
"That is a matter for future discovery," returned the scientist, with some eagerness.
"My goodness me!" groaned Mark. "He really enjoys the situation."
"No man has ever been in such a position before—I am convinced of that," declared the professor. ”

“ Jack had turned the Snowbird's prow and they were drifting toward the western cliffs which guarded the glacier. Here the rocky heights were at least seven hundred feet above the ice.
Out of a crack in the high wall—from its eyrie without doubt—a huge female eagle suddenly shot down toward the drifting aeroplane. The flying machine seemed not to startle the great bird at all; it only angered her. Perhaps she had young up there in the cliff and she feared her hereditary enemy, Man, was coming on wings to deprive her of them. ”

“ But Andy Sudds read signs other than those of which the professor made notes. Jack saw the old hunter watching the sledge dogs with a puzzled frown wrinkling his brow.
"What's the matter with you, Andy?" queried the youth.
"Them dogs," declaimed the hunter.
"What about them?" "They're plumb scart. All this disturbance and mystery has got in on them. They act just like they were seeing spooks."
"Spooks!" repeated Jack in surprise. "Do you mean to say dogs can see ghosts?"
"All dogs can smell out when things is going to happen," declared Andy Sudds. ”

“ CHAPTER XXI MARK ON GUARD After the hearty supper, and the excitement of the bear-killing, they were all more or less ready for bed. The professor figured that the sun would not appear again to the Crusoes on this island in the air for quite fourteen hours. They all ought to get sufficient sleep before that time. The havoc wrought by the rays of the torrid sun upon the glacier had been apparent as they came over it to this fringe of trees at the base of the cliff. It might be necessary for them to move quickly from the ice to save their lives. ”

“ Jack Darrow said. "This is no place for any of us. As soon as the ice freezes up after the sun sets we must travel as fast as we can after the wolves."
"And I wish we could travel as fast as they can," muttered Andy Sudds.
"I wish we had Mr. Roebach's dogs and sleds," said Mark.
"All right. As long as you're wishing, though, why not wish for the right thing?" demanded Jack.
"And what is that, Master Jack?" asked the oil man.
"Wish we were aboard the Snowbird and that she was all right. That's what I wish." ”

“ Trees about them were uprooted; many bent to the earth; some snapped off short at the ground—great boles two and three feet through!
Jack and Mark, with Andy Sudds and the terrified Wash, would have been destroyed within the first few seconds of this awful upheaval had it not been for a single fortunate circumstance. When the cataclysm was inaugurated the first shock drove the four into a sort of hollow walled about with solid rock. Upon this hollow fell the first huge tree trunk of the flying forest—and it sheltered them instead of crushing them to death. ”

“ Jack, at least, remembered very clearly the way to the wrecked flying machine, and of course the old hunter was not likely to lose his way in as black a night as ever was made.
They struggled on between the intervals of pitch darkness, for the trembling of the earth had again ceased. The visitation had been much heavier than they had previously suffered.
"The best thing we can do," muttered Mark in Jack's ear, "is to fix up the Snowbird and beat it away from here just as fast as we can. This is altogether too strenuous a place for us, believe me!" "If we only can!" ”

“ Jack changed places with his chum and managed the Snowbird equally well. At his touch she darted upward at a long slant until the altimeter registered two thousand feet above the sea. And the sea was actually below them, for Jack had guided the flying machine away out from the land.
"Boys," said Professor Henderson, quietly, "you have done well—remarkably well. I am certainly proud of you. Some day the people of the United States will be proud of you. I am sure that the inventor's instinct and the scientist's indefatigable energy are characteristics you both possess." ”

“ Mark Sampson said, quietly. "Let us utilize them to better advantage and save the sleds in addition."
"How?" asked Phineas Roebach.
"Make sails of the robes and propel the sleds, riding on them, too," declared Mark. "Such wind as there is is pretty steadily at our backs. Why not?"
"Why not, indeed?" shouted Jack. "Hurrah for Mark!"
"A splendid thought, my boy," declared the professor.
Poles were cut for masts and Andy rigged a stout one on each sled, with cross-pieces, or spars, to hold the blankets spread as sails. Andy even rigged sweeps for rudders with which to steer these crude ice-boats. ”

“ Not at all!" returned the professor. "Think what a mighty globe the earth is. Remember that there are valleys miles deep—mountains miles high! There are holes in the ocean which have remained unfathomed to this day! The surface of the earth is very, very rough. What keeps the oceans from overflowing the land and filling all those sinks and valleys that are deeper than the ocean bed? Merely the power of attraction which the earth exercises.
"Suppose explorers hurry to the scene of the great earthquake—to the edge of the vast crater which the blowing-out of this portion of the earth has left. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII PHINEAS ROEBACH, OIL HUNTER As has been said, the boys and their older companions had been in many perilous situations; but no adventure promised to end more tragically than this flight of the huge airship. The descent of the Snowbird, punctuated by the rifle shot below, seemed likely to be fatal to them all.
"What kind of people can they be?" gasped Mark. "They are trying to shoot us."
"Give me my rifle! I'll show 'em!" exclaimed the old hunter.
"You'll do nothing of the kind, Andy," commanded Professor Henderson.
"Do not make a bad matter worse by yielding to your passions." ”

“ But the bears were all shuffling across the ice to get at the sailing sleds. They were fast bunching immediately in the front of their human enemies.
Jack and Mark obeyed the old hunter's order. They poured their fire into the huge, shaggy beast that rose on its hind legs before the sled, and roaring, spread its huge paws abroad ready to seize it and its human burden. ”

“ Instantly, relieved of their weight, the flying machine was carried on again and Mark and Andy were thrown to the ground.
Perhaps that was well, for several rifles were again fired behind them and they heard the bullets whistle above their heads.
"Low bridge, Mark!" cried the old hunter, meaning for the boy to keep close to the earth. "I've got my gun."
"Don't fire on them, Andy," responded young Sampson, remembering the professor's warning. "We don't know who they are or what they mean by their actions."
"We don't want to be shot down without making any fight; do we?" ”

“ It would be catastrophe enough if the torn-away world never returned to the earth, but sailed forever and ever, round and round its parent planet. Our heroes and their companions would then be marooned without hope of rescue on a fragmentary planet in space, the said planet doomed to become a mere lump of dead and frozen matter adrift in the universe. ”

“ I don't believe any of us will be able to get at my forge till this shower of missiles stops," said Phineas Roebach.
"What needs to be done to the flying machine?" asked the professor, briskly. "Are you sure it can be repaired, Mark?"
"Very sure, sir," replied the boy.
"And you, Jack?" repeated Professor Henderson.
"We could fix it up all right before midnight," declared the other.
"But we must have a forge."
"This geyser will stop playing after a bit, we will hope," said the professor, encouragingly. "If the flying machine is not past repair we need not worry. Nor need you, Mr. Roebach. ”

“ Further up the hillside the dogs' quarters had been built, and the sleds were there, too. The oil man and Andy Sudds looked at one another.
"All the stores are in the far end of the cabin," grunted Roebach. "And you can see what that geyser is doing to the shed where the tools are. There goes another stone through the roof!"
"If we could only get hold of that portable forge," said Mark.
"And that is what we must get," exclaimed Jack. "Is the door of that shanty locked, Mr. Roebach?"
"It's nothing but a skin door," replied the oil man. "But it's at the far side—fronting that old mud-slinger. ”

“ Do not allow a man to go on deck, nor to open a deadlight. We must exist upon the air that remains in the vessel for the present."
"What do you mean?" gasped the skipper.
"There is no air outside!" declared Professor Henderson, solemnly. "We are flying through space where no atmosphere exists. The iron pot merely remained poised in space—our planet, far, far, heavier, is falling through this awful void."
"What sort o' stuff are you talkin'?" demanded Captain Sproul, growing positively white beneath his tan. ”

“ With a scream of rage the eagle dashed herself directly into the face of Jack, strapped to the operator's seat. For once Andy Sudds had not his rifle at hand; and, the attack was so unexpected, it is doubtful if he could have come to the rescue in season.
With beak and claws the bird endeavored to tear at the youth's face. Jack jerked loose the transmitter and beat it to pieces over the bird, but without making her desist. ”

“ Andy hacked with a hatchet the paws from the last Kodiak that tried to seize the sled, and the two boys continued to pour bullets into the howling, roaring pack.
They took Phineas aboard the slowly moving sled and so reached the professor and Wash. Immediately that sled was put in motion and the party traveled a full mile before they dared halt and take stock of the damage done.
The bears had given up the pursuit. The ice for yards around had been crimsoned by the blood of the huge beasts. They could count, even at that distance, ten dead ones, and many would die of their wounds. ”

“ Mark said he was ready; the professor reached for the cord which would release the trigger.
"Start your motor, Mark, a fraction of a second before I release the compressed air," commanded Mr. Henderson. "Now!"
The motor of the flying machine buzzed faintly. Jack's eyes were on the speed indicator. He suddenly felt the great, quivering flying machine, which had been run out of the hangar on to the steel plank of the catapult, lurch forward. The feeling affected him just as the sudden dropping of an elevator from a great height affects its passengers. ”

“ The world rocked on in awful throes—as though it really was, as the black man feared, the end of all material things. Jack and Mark rolled upon the ground in the grove of huge trees, clinging to each other's hands, but unable to rise, or to find their two comrades. ”

“ The wolves had followed them on the ice, or along the edge of the river, up to this time. They saw, indeed, a pack of the ugly creatures on a wooded point ahead of them, at a distance of a couple of miles. But before the sleds reached this point (which served to hide the icy track beyond) the wolves suddenly disappeared.
"Something has scared them fellers," Andy declared.
"The traders?" suggested Jack, who traveled with the old hunter and
Mark on one sled, while Roebach, Wash and Professor Henderson sailed
on the other. "Not hardly. Men wouldn't scare them critters so. ”

“ How is that, Jack?"
"Not with my knowledge, sir," returned the boy aviator. "I think we have remained on the thousand-foot level since crossing the Rocky Mountains."
"I believe you have been faithful, my boy," returned the professor, quickly. "But the earth is certainly less than three hundred feet below us—ah! see that? The indicator registers 250 feet. Now 240!" "We are falling!" cried Mark.
"No!" said the professor. "The earth is rising. We are being blown against the mountainside. We must be within a few hundred miles, at least, of our destination. ”

“ If nothing else, this need of food would have hurried the party on to their destination farther up the mountainside.
As they advanced the roaring of the mud geyser diminished. The professor continued to be much interested in the condition of Nature about them as they climbed the hill. The uprooted trees, and the huge trunks broken off by the final upheaval of the earth, made the old gentleman look very serious indeed.
"There has been a mighty change in the face of Nature," he said thoughtfully. "You boys were saved from death by a miracle, I have no doubt." ”