It
seemed as if he were standing upon [v]petrified air.
seemed as if he were standing upon [v]petrified air.
The Literary World - Seventh Reader
At all events I undoubtedly
beheld the whole of the earth's diameter; the entire northern hemisphere
lay beneath me like a chart, and the great circle of the equator itself
formed the boundary line of my horizon.
APRIL 8TH. I found a sensible diminution in the earth's size, besides a
material alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole area
partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some
portions had acquired a brilliancy even painful to the eye. My view was
somewhat impeded by clouds near the earth, but nevertheless I could
easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the great lakes in
North America and was holding a course due south which would soon bring
me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to give me the most
heartfelt satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate
success. Indeed, the direction I had hitherto taken had filled me with
uneasiness, for it was evident that had I continued it much longer,
there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the moon at all,
which revolves around the earth in the plane of the equator.
APRIL 9TH. To-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the
color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon
kept steadily on her course to the southward, and arrived at nine P. M.
over the Mexican Gulf.
APRIL 12TH. A singular alteration took place in regard to the direction
of the balloon, and, although fully anticipated, afforded me the very
greatest delight. Having reached, in its former course, about the
twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an
acute angle to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day,
keeping nearly, if not altogether, in the exact plane of the moon's
path around the earth.
APRIL 13TH. Great decrease in the earth's apparent size. The moon could
not be seen at all, being nearly above me. I still continued in the
plane of the moon's path, but made little progress eastward.
APRIL 14TH. Extremely rapid decrease in the size of the earth. To-day I
became strongly impressed with the idea that the balloon was holding the
direct course which would bring it immediately to the moon where it
comes nearest the earth. The moon was directly overhead, and
consequently hidden from my view. Great and long continued labor was
necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere.
APRIL 16TH. To-day, looking upward as well as I could, through each of
the side windows alternately, I beheld, to my great delight, a very
small portion of the moon's disk protruding, as it were, on all sides
beyond the huge bulk of the balloon. My agitation was extreme, for I had
now little doubt of soon reaching the end of my perilous voyage. Indeed,
the labor required by the condenser had increased to such a degree that
I had scarcely any respite from exertion. Sleep was a matter nearly out
of question. I became quite ill, and my frame trembled with exhaustion.
It was impossible that human nature could endure this state of intense
suffering much longer.
APRIL 17TH. This morning proved an epoch in my voyage. It will be
remembered that on the thirteenth the earth had diminished; on the
fourteenth, it had still further dwindled; on the fifteenth, a still
more rapid decrease was observable; and on retiring for the night of the
sixteenth, the earth had shrunk to small size. What, therefore, must
have been my amazement, on awakening from a brief and disturbed slumber
on the morning of this day, the seventeenth, at finding the surface
beneath me so suddenly and wonderfully increased in volume as to seem
but a comparatively short distance beneath me! I was thunderstruck! No
words can give any adequate idea of the extreme, the absolute horror and
astonishment, with which I was seized, possessed and altogether
overwhelmed. My knees tottered beneath me--my teeth chattered--my hair
started up on end. The balloon then had actually burst! These were the
first ideas which hurried through my mind. The balloon had burst! I was
falling--falling with the most impetuous, the most wonderful velocity!
To judge from the immense distance already so quickly passed over, it
could not be more than ten minutes at the farthest before I should meet
the surface of the earth and be hurled into annihilation!
But at length reflection came to my relief. I paused, I considered, and
I began to doubt. The matter was impossible. I could not, in any reason,
have so rapidly come down. Besides, although I was evidently approaching
the surface below me, it was with a speed by no means commensurate with
the velocity I had at first conceived. This consideration served to calm
my mind, and I finally succeeded in looking at the matter in its proper
point of view. In fact, amazement must have fairly deprived me of my
senses when I could not see the vast difference in appearance between
the surface below me and the surface of my mother earth. The latter was
indeed over my head and completely hidden by the balloon, while the
moon--the moon itself in all its glory--lay beneath me and at my feet!
I had indeed arrived at the point where the attraction of the moon had
proved stronger than the attraction of the earth, and so the moon now
appeared to be below me and I was descending upon it. It lay beneath me
like a chart, and I studied it with the deepest attention. The entire
absence of ocean or sea, and indeed of any lake or river, or body of
water whatsoever, struck me at the first glance as the most
extraordinary feature in its appearance.
APRIL 18TH. To-day I found an enormous increase in the moon's apparent
bulk--and the evidently increased velocity of my descent began to fill
me with alarm. I had relied on finding some atmosphere at the moon and
on the resistance of this atmosphere to [v]gravitation as affording me a
chance to land in safety. Should I prove to have been mistaken about the
atmosphere, I had nothing better to expect than to be dashed into atoms
against the rugged surface of the earth's [v]satellite. And indeed I
had now every reason to be terrified. My distance from the moon was
comparatively trivial, while the labor required by the condenser was
diminished not at all, and I could discover no indication whatever of a
decreasing rarity of the air.
APRIL 19TH. This morning, to my great joy, about nine o'clock, the
surface of the moon being frightfully near and my fears excited to the
utmost, the pump of my condenser at length gave evident tokens of an
alteration in the atmosphere. By ten, I had reason to believe its
density considerably increased. By eleven, very little labor was
necessary at the apparatus; and at twelve o'clock, with some hesitation,
I ventured to open the car a little and suffered no inconvenience. I
finally threw aside the gum-elastic chamber and unrigged it from around
the car. As might have been expected, spasms and violent headache were
the immediate consequences of an experiment so rash. But this was
forgotten in consideration of other things. My approach was still rapid
in the extreme; and it soon became certain that although I had probably
not been deceived in the expectation of finding a fairly dense
atmosphere, still I had been wrong in supposing that atmosphere dense
enough to support the great weight contained in the car of the balloon.
I was now close upon the planet and coming down with the most terrible
rapidity. I lost not a moment, accordingly, in throwing overboard first
my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my condensing apparatus and
gum-elastic chamber, and finally every article within the car.
But it was all to no purpose. I still fell with horrible speed, and was
now not more than half a mile from the surface. As a last resource,
therefore, having got rid of my coat, hat, and boots, I cut loose from
the balloon the car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and
thus clinging with both hands to the net-work, I had barely time to
observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was
thickly sown with small habitations, ere I tumbled headlong into the
very heart of a fantastic city and into the middle of a vast crowd of
ugly little people. I turned from them, and gazing upward at the earth
so lately left, and left perhaps forever, beheld it like a huge, dull
copper shield, fixed immovably in the heavens overhead and tipped on one
of its edges with a crescent border of the most brilliant gold.
EDGAR ALLAN POE.
=HELPS TO STUDY=
Describe the balloon Hans constructed. How did he extricate himself
from each difficulty he encountered? What characteristic did this
show? Note the changes in the appearance of the earth as he made
his journey. On what day did he see the North Pole? In what region
was he when he saw the moon? What did he find when he reached that
body?
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
From the Earth to the Moon--Jules Verne.
The War of the Worlds--H. G. Wells.
THE GREAT STONE OF SARDIS[391-*]
This fanciful tale is taken from Frank R. Stockton's _The Great
Stone of Sardis_. In this book the hero, Roland Clewe, is pictured
as a scientist who had made many startling discoveries and
inventions at his works in Sardis about the year 1946. One of his
inventions was an automatic shell. This was an enormous projectile,
the peculiarity of which was that its motive power was contained
within itself, very much as a rocket contains the explosives which
send it upward. The extraordinary piece of mechanism was of
[v]cylindrical form, eighteen feet in length and fourteen feet in
diameter. The forward end was [v]conical and not solid, being
formed of a number of flat steel rings, decreasing in size as they
approached the point of the cone. When not in operation these rings
did not touch one another, but they could be forced together by
pressure on the point of the cone. One day this shell fell from the
supports on which it lay, the conical end down, and ploughed its
way with terrific force into the earth--how far no one could tell.
Clewe determined to descend the hole in search of the shell by
means of an electric elevator. Margaret Raleigh, to whom he was
engaged, had gone to the seashore, and during her absence, Clewe
planned to make his daring venture.
On the day that Margaret left Sardis, Roland began his preparations for
descending the shaft. He had so thoroughly considered the machinery and
appliances necessary for the undertaking and had worked out all his
plans in such detail, in his mind and upon paper, that he knew exactly
what he wanted to do. His orders for the great length of chain needed
exhausted the stock of several factories, and the engines he obtained
were even more powerful than he had intended them to be; but these he
could procure immediately, and for smaller ones he would have been
obliged to wait.
The circular car which was intended to move up and down the shaft, and
the peculiar machinery connected with it, together with the hoisting
apparatus, were all made in his works. His skilled artisans labored
steadily day and night.
It was ten days before he was ready to make his descent. Margaret was
still at the seashore. They had written to each other frequently, but
neither had made mention of the great shaft. Even when he was ready to
go down, Clewe said nothing to any one of an immediate intention of
descending. There was a massive door which covered the mouth of the pit;
this he ordered locked and went away.
The next morning he walked into the building a little earlier than was
his custom, called for the engineers, and for Bryce, who was to take
charge of everything connected with the descent, and announced that he
was going down that day.
Bryce and the men who were to assist him looked very serious at this.
Indeed, if their employer had been any other man than Roland Clewe, it
is possible they might have remonstrated with him; but they knew him,
and they said and did nothing more than what was their duty.
The door of the shaft was removed, the car which had hung high above it
was lowered to the mouth of the opening, and Roland stepped within it
and seated himself. Above him and around him were placed [v]geological
tools and instruments of many kinds, a lantern, food, and
drink--everything, in fact, which he could possibly be presumed to need
upon this extraordinary journey. A telephone was at his side by which he
could communicate at any time with the surface of the earth. There were
electric bells; there was everything to make his expedition safe and
profitable. Finally he gave the word to start the engines; there were no
ceremonies, and nothing was said out of the common.
When the conical top of the car had descended below the surface, a steel
grating, with holes for the passage of the chains, was let down over the
mouth of the shaft, and the downward journey began. In the floor of the
car were grated openings, through which Clewe could look downward; but,
although the shaft below him was brilliantly illuminated by electric
lights placed beneath the car, it failed to frighten him or make him
dizzy to look down, for the [v]aperture did not appear to be very far
below him. The upper part of the car was partially open, and bright
lights shone upon the sides of the shaft.
As he slowly descended, Clewe could see the various [v]strata appearing
and disappearing in the order in which he knew them. Not far below the
surface he passed cavities which he believed had held water; but there
was no water in them now. He had expected these pockets, and had feared
that upon their edges might be loosened patches of rock or soil, but
everything seemed tightly packed and hard. If anything had been
loosened, it had gone down already.
Down, down he went until he came to the eternal rocks, where the inside
of the shaft was polished as if it had been made of glass. The air
became warmer and warmer, but Clewe knew that the heat would soon
decrease. The character of the rocks changed, and he studied them as he
went down, continually making notes.
After a time the polished rocky sides of the shaft grew to be of a
solemn sameness. Clewe ceased to take notes; he lighted a cigar and
smoked. He tried to imagine what he would come to when he reached the
bottom; it would be some sort of a cave, he thought, in which his shell
had made an opening. He began to imagine what sort of a cave it would
be, and how high the roof was from the floor. Clewe then suddenly
wondered whether his gardener had remembered what he had told him about
the flower-beds in front of the house; he wished certain changes made
which Margaret had suggested. He tried to keep his mind on the
flower-beds, but it drifted away to the cave below. He thought of the
danger of coming into some underground body of water, where he would be
drowned; but he knew that was a silly idea. If the shell had gone
through [v]subterranean reservoirs, the water of these would have run
out, and before it reached the bottom of the shaft would have dissipated
into mist.
Down, down he went. He looked at his watch; he had been in that car only
an hour and a half. Was that possible? He had supposed he was almost at
the bottom. Suddenly his mind reverted to the people above and the
telephone. Why had not some of them spoken to him? It was shameful! He
instantly called Bryce, and his heart leaped with joy when he heard the
familiar voice in his ear. Now he talked steadily on for more than an
hour. He had his gardener summoned, and told the man all that he wanted
done in the flower-beds. He gave many directions in regard to the
various operations at the works. There were two or three inventions in
which he took particular interest, and of these he talked at great
length with Bryce. Suddenly, in the midst of some talk about hollow
steel rods, he told Bryce to let the engines run faster; there was no
reason why the car should go so slowly.
The windlasses moved with a little more rapidity, and Clewe now turned
and looked at an indicator which was placed on the side of the car, a
little over his head. This instrument showed the depth to which he had
descended, but he had not looked at it before, for if anything would
make him nervous, it would be the continual consideration of the depth
to which he had descended.
The indicator showed that he had gone down fourteen and one-eighth
miles. Clewe turned and sat stiffly in his seat. He glanced down and saw
beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading away at the bottom. Then he
turned to speak to Bryce, but to his surprise, he could think of nothing
to say. After that he lighted another cigar and sat quietly.
Some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down
through the gratings in the floor of the car. The electric light
streamed downward through a deep [v]crevice, which did not now fade away
into nothingness, but ended in something dark and glittering. Then, as
he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, Clewe saw that it
was his automatic shell, lying on its side; only a part of it was
visible through the opening of the shaft which he was descending. In an
instant, as it seemed to him, the car emerged from the shaft, and he
seemed to be hanging in the air--at least there was nothing he could see
except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him. But it was
impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! He rang to stop
the car.
"Anything the matter? " cried Bryce.
"Nothing at all," Clewe replied. "It's all right; I am near the
bottom. "
In a state of the highest nervous excitement, Clewe gazed about him. He
was no longer in a shaft; but where was he? Look around on what side he
would, he saw nothing but the light going out from his lamps, light
which seemed to extend indefinitely all about him. There appeared to be
no limit to his vision in any direction. Then he leaned over the side of
his car and looked downward. There lay the great shell directly under
him, although under it and around it, extending as far beneath it as it
extended in every other direction, shone the light from his own lamp.
Nevertheless, that great shell, weighing many tons, lay as if it rested
upon the solid ground!
After a few moments, Clewe shut his eyes; they pained him. Something
seemed to be coming into them like a fine frost in a winter wind. Then
he called to Bryce to let the car descend very slowly. It went down,
down, gradually approaching the great shell. When the bottom of the car
was within two feet of it, Clewe rang to stop. He looked down at the
complicated machine he had worked upon so long, with something like a
feeling of affection. This he knew; it was his own. Gazing upon its
familiar form, he felt that he had a companion in this region of
unreality.
Pushing back the sliding door of the car, Clewe sat upon the bottom and
cautiously put out his feet and legs, lowering them until they touched
the shell. It was firm and solid. Although he knew it must be so, the
immovability of the great mass of iron gave him a sudden shock of
mysterious fear. How could it be immovable when there was nothing under
it--when it rested on air?
But he must get out of that car, he must explore, he must find out.
There certainly could be no danger so long as he clung to the shell.
He cautiously got out of the car and let himself down upon the shell. It
was not a pleasant surface to stand on, being uneven, with great spiral
ribs, and Clewe sat down upon it, clinging to it with his hands.
Presently he leaned over to one side and looked beneath him. The shadows
of that shell went down, down, down into space, until it made him sick
to look at them. He drew back quickly, clutched the shell with his arms,
and shut his eyes. He felt as if he were about to drop with it into a
measureless depth of atmosphere.
[Illustration: He Put Out One Foot]
But he soon raised himself. He had not come down there to be frightened,
to let his nerves run away with him. He had come to find out things.
What was it that this shell rested upon? Seizing two of the ribs with a
strong clutch, he let himself hang over the sides of the shell until his
feet were level with its lower side. They touched something hard. He
pressed them downward; it was very hard. He raised himself and stood
upon the substance which supported the shell. It was as solid as any
rock. He looked down and saw his shadow stretching far beneath him.
It
seemed as if he were standing upon [v]petrified air. He put out one foot
and moved a little, still holding on to the shell. He walked, as if upon
solid air, to the foremost end of the long [v]projectile. It relieved
him to turn his thoughts from what was around him to this familiar
object. He found its conical end shattered.
After a little he slowly made his way back to the other end of the
shell, and now his eyes became somewhat accustomed to the great radiance
about him. He thought he could perceive here and there faint signs of
long, nearly horizontal lines--lines of different shades of light. Above
him, as if it hung in the air, was the round, dark hole through which he
had descended.
He rose, took his hands from the shell, and made a few steps. He trod
upon a horizontal surface, but in putting one foot forward, he felt a
slight incline. It seemed to him, that he was about to slip downward!
Instantly he retreated to the shell and clutched it in a sudden frenzy
of fear.
Standing thus, with his eyes still wandering, he heard the bell of the
telephone ring. Without hesitation he mounted the shell and got into the
car. Bryce was calling him.
"Come up," he said. "You have been down there long enough. No matter
what you have found, it is time for you to come up. "
"All right," said Roland. "You can haul me up, but go very slowly at
first. "
The car rose. When it reached the orifice in the top of the cave of
light, Clewe heard the conical steel top grate slightly as it touched
the edge, for the car was still swinging a little from the motion given
to it by his entrance; but it soon hung perfectly vertical and went
silently up the shaft.
Seated in the car, which was steadily ascending the great shaft, Roland
Clewe took no notice of anything about him. He did not look at the
brilliantly lighted interior of the shaft; he paid no attention to his
instruments; he did not consult his watch, or glance at the dial which
indicated the distance he had traveled. Several times the telephone bell
rang, and Bryce inquired how he was getting along; but these questions
he answered as briefly as possible, and sat looking down at his knees
and seeing nothing.
When he was half-way up, he suddenly became conscious that he was very
hungry. He hurriedly ate some sandwiches and drank some water, and again
gave himself up entirely to mental labor. When, at last, the noise of
machinery above him and the sound of voices aroused him from his
abstraction, and the car emerged upon the surface of the earth, Clewe
hastily slid back the door and stepped out. At that instant he felt
himself encircled by a pair of arms. Bryce was near by, and there were
other men by the engines, but the owner of those arms thought nothing
of this.
"Margaret! " cried Clewe, "how came you here? "
"I have been here all the time," she exclaimed; "or, at least, nearly
all the time. " And as she spoke she drew back and looked at him, her
eyes full of happy tears. "Mr. Bryce telegraphed to me the instant he
knew you were going down, and I was here before you had descended
half-way. "
"What! " he cried. "And all those messages came from you? "
"Nearly all," she answered. "But tell me, Roland--tell me; have you been
successful? "
"I am successful," he answered. "I have discovered everything! "
Bryce came forward.
"I will speak to you all very soon," said Clewe. "I can't tell you
anything now. Margaret, let us go. I wish to talk to you, but not until
I have been to my office. I will meet you at your house in a very few
minutes. " And with that he left the building and fairly ran to his
office.
A quarter of an hour later Roland entered Margaret's library, where she
sat awaiting him. He carefully closed the doors and windows. They sat
side by side upon the sofa.
"Now, Roland," she said, "I cannot wait one second longer. What is it
that you have discovered? "
"When I arrived at the bottom of the shaft," he began, "I found myself
in a cleft, I know not how large, made in a vast mass of transparent
substance, hard as the hardest rock and as transparent as air in the
light of my electric lamps. My shell rested securely upon this
substance. I walked upon it. It seemed as if I could see miles below me.
In my opinion, Margaret, that substance was once the head of a comet. "
"What is the substance? " she asked, hastily.
"It is a mass of solid diamond! "
Margaret screamed. She could not say one word.
"Yes," said he, "I believe the whole central portion of the earth is one
great diamond. When it was moving about in its orbit as a comet, the
light of the sun streamed through this diamond and spread an enormous
tail out into space; after a time this [v]nucleus began to burn. "
"Burn! " exclaimed Margaret.
"Yes, the diamond is almost pure [v]carbon; why should it not burn? It
burned and burned and burned. Ashes formed upon it and encircled it; it
still burned, and when it was entirely covered with ashes it ceased to
be transparent and ceased to be a comet; it became a planet, and
revolved in a different orbit. It still burned within its covering of
ashes, and these gradually changed to rock, to metal, to everything that
forms the crust of the earth. "
She gazed upon him, entranced.
"Some parts of this great central mass of carbon burn more fiercely than
other parts. Some parts do not burn at all. In volcanic regions the
fires rage; where my great shell went down it no longer burns. Now you
have my theory. It is crude and rough, for I have tried to give it to
you in as few words as possible. "
"Oh, Roland," she cried, "it is absurd! Diamond! Why, people will think
you are crazy. You must not say such a thing as that to anybody. It is
simply impossible that the greater part of this earth should be an
enormous diamond. "
"Margaret," he answered, "nothing is impossible. The central portion of
this earth is composed of something; it might just as well be diamond as
anything else. In fact, if you consider the matter, it is more likely to
be, because diamond is a very original substance. As I have said, it is
almost pure carbon. I do not intend to repeat a word of what I have told
you to any one--at least until the matter has been well considered--but
I am not afraid of being thought crazy. Margaret, will you look at
these? "
He took from his pocket some shining substances resembling glass. Some
of them were flat, some round; the largest was as big as a lemon; others
were smaller fragments of various sizes.
"These are pieces of the great diamond which were broken when the shell
struck the bottom of the cave in which I found it. I picked them up as
I felt my way around this shell, when walking upon what seemed to me
solid air. I thrust them into my pocket, and I would not come to you,
Margaret, with this story, until I had visited my office to find out
what these fragments are. I tested them; their substance is diamond! "
Half-dazed, she took the largest piece in her hand.
"Roland," she whispered, "if this is really a diamond, there is nothing
like it known to man! "
"Nothing, indeed," said he.
She sat staring at the great piece of glowing mineral which lay in her
hand. Its surface was irregular; it had many faces; the subdued light
from the window gave it the appearance of animated water. He felt it
necessary to speak.
"Even these little pieces," he said, "are most valuable jewels. "
"Roland," she suddenly cried, excitedly, "these are riches beyond
imagination! What is common wealth to what you have discovered? Every
living being on earth could--"
"Ah, Margaret," he interrupted, "do not let your thoughts run that way.
If my discovery should be put to the use of which you are thinking, it
would bring poverty to the world, not wealth, and every diamond on earth
would be worthless. "
She trembled. "And these--are they to be valued as common pebbles? "
"Oh no," said he; "these broken fragments I have found are to us riches
far beyond our wildest imagination. "
"Roland," she cried, "are you going down into that shaft for more of
them? "
"Never, never, never again," he answered. "What we have here is enough
for us, and if I were offered all the good that there is in this world,
which money cannot buy, I would never go down into that cleft again.
There was one moment, as I stood in that cave, when an awful terror shot
into my soul that I shall never be able to forget. In the light of my
electric lamps, sent through a vast transparent mass, I could see
nothing, but I could feel. I put out my foot, and I found it was upon a
sloping surface. In another instant I might have slid--where? I cannot
bear to think of it! " FRANK E. STOCKTON.
=HELPS TO STUDY=
What happened to Clewe's automatic shell? What did he decide to do?
Tell of the preparations he made for his descent. What occurred
when he reached the end of the shaft? Of what was Clewe thinking so
intently while making his ascent? Why did he go at once to his
office? What conclusion did he reach as to the central part of the
earth? What did he have to prove the correctness of his theory? Why
was he unwilling ever to make the descent again? This story was
written about the end of the nineteenth century: what great
scientific discoveries have been made since then?
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
A Journey to the Center of the Earth--Jules Verne.
The Adventures of Captain Horn--Frank R. Stockton.
FOOTNOTE:
[391-*] Copyright by Harper & Brothers.
A STOP AT SUZANNE'S
The author of this sketch, a young American aviator, a resident of
Richmond, Virginia, was killed in battle in August, 1918.
Suzanne is a very pretty girl, I was told, but the charm of "Suzanne's"
wasn't with her alone, for, always, one spoke of the deliciously-tasting
meal, how nice the old madame is, and how fine a chap is her _mari_, the
father of Suzanne. Then of the garden in the back--and before you had
finished listening you didn't know which was the most important thing
about "Suzanne's. " All you knew was that it was the place to go when on
an aeroplane voyage.
At the pilotage office I found five others ahead of me; all of us were
bound in the same direction. We were given [v]barographs, altimeters and
maps and full directions as to forced landings and what to do when lost.
We hung around the voyage hangar until about eight in the morning, but
there was a low mist and cloudy sky, so we could not start out until
afternoon; and I didn't have luncheon at "Suzanne's. "
After noon several of the others started out, but I wanted to plan my
supper stop for the second point, so I waited until about four o'clock
before starting.
Almost before I knew it a village, which on the map was twelve
kilometers away, was slipping by beneath me and then off to one side was
a forest, green and cool-looking and very regular around the edges.
Pretty soon I came to a deep blue streak bordered by trees, and was so
interested in it--it wound around under a railroad track, came up and
brushed by lots of back gates and, finally, fell in a wide splash of
silver over a little fall by a mill--that I forgot all about flying and
suddenly woke up to the fact that one wing was about as low as it could
get and that the nose of the machine was doing its best to follow the
wing.
Long before I came to the stopping point, I could see the little white
hangar. The field is not large, but it is strange, so you come down
rather anxiously, for if you can't make that field the first time, you
never will be able to fly, they tell you before leaving. I glided down
easily enough, for, after all, it is just that--either you can or you
can't--and made a good-enough landing. The sergeant signed my paper, and
a few minutes later away I went for "Suzanne's. " The next stop is near a
little village--Suzanne's village--so when I came to the field and
landed I was sure to be too tired to go up again immediately. Instead,
off I went to town after making things right with the man in charge.
That wasn't a bit difficult, either, for all I did was to wink as hard
as I could, and he understood perfectly.
I knew where "Suzanne's" was, so I made directly for it. It was a little
early, but you should never miss the [v]_apertif_. With that first,
success is assured; without it, it is like getting out of bed on the
wrong foot.
Up I marched to the unimposing door and walked in to the main room--a
big room, with long, wooden tables and benches and a zinc bar at one
end, where all kinds of bottles rested. It isn't called "Suzanne's," of
course; it only has that name among us.
As I closed the door behind me and looked about, a _bonne_ was serving
several men at a corner table, and behind the bar a big, red-faced,
stout man was pouring stuff into bottles. He looked at me a moment and
then with a tremendous "_Tiens! _" he came out from behind the tables and
advanced toward me.
"_Bon jour_," he said; "do you come from far? "
"Oh, no," I answered, "only from ----. "
"_Tiens! _" he repeated; then, "Ah, you are from the school. " _L'ecole_,
he called it.
From _l'ecole_, I admitted, and, taking me by the arm, he led me to a
door at the rear. Through this he propelled me, and then in his huge
voice he called "_Suzanne, un [v]pilote! _" and I was introduced.
As he shut the door, I could just see the corner table with the three
old men staring open-mouthed, the wine before them forgotten, the bread
and cheese in their hands untasted; then, down the stairs came light
steps and a rustle of skirts, and Suzanne was before me with smiling
face and outstretched hand.
Her instant welcome, the genuine smile! Almost immediately, I understood
the fame of this little station, so far from everything but the air
route.
Her charm is indescribable. She is pretty, she is well dressed, but it
isn't that. It is a sincerity of manner, complete hospitality; at once
you are accepted as a bosom friend of the family--that is the charm of
Suzanne's.
After a few questions as to where I came from, how long I had been
there, and where I was going, Suzanne led me upstairs to be presented to
[v]"_Ma belle mere_," a white-haired old lady sitting in a big,
straight-backed chair. Then, after more courtesies had been extended to
me, Suzanne preceded me down to the garden and left me alone while she
went in to see that the supper was exceptionally good.
A soft footstep on the gravel walk sounded behind me, and I turned to
see one of the most beautiful women I ever beheld. She was tall and
slender, and as she came gracefully across the lawn she swung a little
work bag from one arm. All in black she was, with a lace shawl over her
bare head. Like every one in that most charming and hospitable house,
there was no formality or show about her. She came, smiling, and sat on
the bench beside me, drawing open her work bag. I could not help
noticing, particularly, her beautiful eyes, for they told the story, a
story too common here, except that her eyes had changed now to an
expression of resigned peace. Then she told me about Suzanne.
Long before, ages and ages ago it seemed, but really only four years, a
huge, ungainly bird fell crashing to earth and from the wreck a man was
taken, unconscious. He was carried to "Suzanne's," and she nursed him
and cared for him until he was well again. "Suzanne was very happy
then," madame told me. And no wonder, for the daring aviator and Suzanne
were in love. She nursed him back to health, but when he went away he
left his heart forever with her.
They were engaged, and every little while he would fly over from his
station to see Suzanne. Those were in the early days and aviation--well,
even at that, it hasn't changed so much.
One day a letter came for Suzanne, and with a catch at her throbbing
heart she read that her _fiancé_ had been killed. [v]"_Mort pour la
patrie_," it said, and Suzanne was never the same afterward.
For many months the poor girl grieved, but, finally, she began to
realize that what had happened to her had happened to thousands of other
girls, too, and, gradually, she took up the attitude that you find
throughout this glorious country. Only her eyes now tell the sad story.
One evening two men walked into the café and from their talk Suzanne
knew they were from _l'ecole_. She sat down and listened to them. They
talked about the war, about aviation, about deeds of heroism, and
Suzanne drank in every word, for they were talking the language of her
dead lover. The two aviators stayed to dinner, but the big room was not
good enough. They must come back to the family dinner--to the intimacy
of the back room.
They stayed all night and left early next morning, but before they left
they wrote their names in a big book. To-day, Suzanne has the book,
filled full of names, many now famous, many names that are only a
memory--that is how it started.
When the two pilots went back to _l'ecole_, they spoke in glowing terms
of "Suzanne's," of the soft beds, of the delicious dinner, and, I think,
mostly of Suzanne.
beheld the whole of the earth's diameter; the entire northern hemisphere
lay beneath me like a chart, and the great circle of the equator itself
formed the boundary line of my horizon.
APRIL 8TH. I found a sensible diminution in the earth's size, besides a
material alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole area
partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some
portions had acquired a brilliancy even painful to the eye. My view was
somewhat impeded by clouds near the earth, but nevertheless I could
easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the great lakes in
North America and was holding a course due south which would soon bring
me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to give me the most
heartfelt satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate
success. Indeed, the direction I had hitherto taken had filled me with
uneasiness, for it was evident that had I continued it much longer,
there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the moon at all,
which revolves around the earth in the plane of the equator.
APRIL 9TH. To-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the
color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon
kept steadily on her course to the southward, and arrived at nine P. M.
over the Mexican Gulf.
APRIL 12TH. A singular alteration took place in regard to the direction
of the balloon, and, although fully anticipated, afforded me the very
greatest delight. Having reached, in its former course, about the
twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an
acute angle to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day,
keeping nearly, if not altogether, in the exact plane of the moon's
path around the earth.
APRIL 13TH. Great decrease in the earth's apparent size. The moon could
not be seen at all, being nearly above me. I still continued in the
plane of the moon's path, but made little progress eastward.
APRIL 14TH. Extremely rapid decrease in the size of the earth. To-day I
became strongly impressed with the idea that the balloon was holding the
direct course which would bring it immediately to the moon where it
comes nearest the earth. The moon was directly overhead, and
consequently hidden from my view. Great and long continued labor was
necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere.
APRIL 16TH. To-day, looking upward as well as I could, through each of
the side windows alternately, I beheld, to my great delight, a very
small portion of the moon's disk protruding, as it were, on all sides
beyond the huge bulk of the balloon. My agitation was extreme, for I had
now little doubt of soon reaching the end of my perilous voyage. Indeed,
the labor required by the condenser had increased to such a degree that
I had scarcely any respite from exertion. Sleep was a matter nearly out
of question. I became quite ill, and my frame trembled with exhaustion.
It was impossible that human nature could endure this state of intense
suffering much longer.
APRIL 17TH. This morning proved an epoch in my voyage. It will be
remembered that on the thirteenth the earth had diminished; on the
fourteenth, it had still further dwindled; on the fifteenth, a still
more rapid decrease was observable; and on retiring for the night of the
sixteenth, the earth had shrunk to small size. What, therefore, must
have been my amazement, on awakening from a brief and disturbed slumber
on the morning of this day, the seventeenth, at finding the surface
beneath me so suddenly and wonderfully increased in volume as to seem
but a comparatively short distance beneath me! I was thunderstruck! No
words can give any adequate idea of the extreme, the absolute horror and
astonishment, with which I was seized, possessed and altogether
overwhelmed. My knees tottered beneath me--my teeth chattered--my hair
started up on end. The balloon then had actually burst! These were the
first ideas which hurried through my mind. The balloon had burst! I was
falling--falling with the most impetuous, the most wonderful velocity!
To judge from the immense distance already so quickly passed over, it
could not be more than ten minutes at the farthest before I should meet
the surface of the earth and be hurled into annihilation!
But at length reflection came to my relief. I paused, I considered, and
I began to doubt. The matter was impossible. I could not, in any reason,
have so rapidly come down. Besides, although I was evidently approaching
the surface below me, it was with a speed by no means commensurate with
the velocity I had at first conceived. This consideration served to calm
my mind, and I finally succeeded in looking at the matter in its proper
point of view. In fact, amazement must have fairly deprived me of my
senses when I could not see the vast difference in appearance between
the surface below me and the surface of my mother earth. The latter was
indeed over my head and completely hidden by the balloon, while the
moon--the moon itself in all its glory--lay beneath me and at my feet!
I had indeed arrived at the point where the attraction of the moon had
proved stronger than the attraction of the earth, and so the moon now
appeared to be below me and I was descending upon it. It lay beneath me
like a chart, and I studied it with the deepest attention. The entire
absence of ocean or sea, and indeed of any lake or river, or body of
water whatsoever, struck me at the first glance as the most
extraordinary feature in its appearance.
APRIL 18TH. To-day I found an enormous increase in the moon's apparent
bulk--and the evidently increased velocity of my descent began to fill
me with alarm. I had relied on finding some atmosphere at the moon and
on the resistance of this atmosphere to [v]gravitation as affording me a
chance to land in safety. Should I prove to have been mistaken about the
atmosphere, I had nothing better to expect than to be dashed into atoms
against the rugged surface of the earth's [v]satellite. And indeed I
had now every reason to be terrified. My distance from the moon was
comparatively trivial, while the labor required by the condenser was
diminished not at all, and I could discover no indication whatever of a
decreasing rarity of the air.
APRIL 19TH. This morning, to my great joy, about nine o'clock, the
surface of the moon being frightfully near and my fears excited to the
utmost, the pump of my condenser at length gave evident tokens of an
alteration in the atmosphere. By ten, I had reason to believe its
density considerably increased. By eleven, very little labor was
necessary at the apparatus; and at twelve o'clock, with some hesitation,
I ventured to open the car a little and suffered no inconvenience. I
finally threw aside the gum-elastic chamber and unrigged it from around
the car. As might have been expected, spasms and violent headache were
the immediate consequences of an experiment so rash. But this was
forgotten in consideration of other things. My approach was still rapid
in the extreme; and it soon became certain that although I had probably
not been deceived in the expectation of finding a fairly dense
atmosphere, still I had been wrong in supposing that atmosphere dense
enough to support the great weight contained in the car of the balloon.
I was now close upon the planet and coming down with the most terrible
rapidity. I lost not a moment, accordingly, in throwing overboard first
my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my condensing apparatus and
gum-elastic chamber, and finally every article within the car.
But it was all to no purpose. I still fell with horrible speed, and was
now not more than half a mile from the surface. As a last resource,
therefore, having got rid of my coat, hat, and boots, I cut loose from
the balloon the car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and
thus clinging with both hands to the net-work, I had barely time to
observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was
thickly sown with small habitations, ere I tumbled headlong into the
very heart of a fantastic city and into the middle of a vast crowd of
ugly little people. I turned from them, and gazing upward at the earth
so lately left, and left perhaps forever, beheld it like a huge, dull
copper shield, fixed immovably in the heavens overhead and tipped on one
of its edges with a crescent border of the most brilliant gold.
EDGAR ALLAN POE.
=HELPS TO STUDY=
Describe the balloon Hans constructed. How did he extricate himself
from each difficulty he encountered? What characteristic did this
show? Note the changes in the appearance of the earth as he made
his journey. On what day did he see the North Pole? In what region
was he when he saw the moon? What did he find when he reached that
body?
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
From the Earth to the Moon--Jules Verne.
The War of the Worlds--H. G. Wells.
THE GREAT STONE OF SARDIS[391-*]
This fanciful tale is taken from Frank R. Stockton's _The Great
Stone of Sardis_. In this book the hero, Roland Clewe, is pictured
as a scientist who had made many startling discoveries and
inventions at his works in Sardis about the year 1946. One of his
inventions was an automatic shell. This was an enormous projectile,
the peculiarity of which was that its motive power was contained
within itself, very much as a rocket contains the explosives which
send it upward. The extraordinary piece of mechanism was of
[v]cylindrical form, eighteen feet in length and fourteen feet in
diameter. The forward end was [v]conical and not solid, being
formed of a number of flat steel rings, decreasing in size as they
approached the point of the cone. When not in operation these rings
did not touch one another, but they could be forced together by
pressure on the point of the cone. One day this shell fell from the
supports on which it lay, the conical end down, and ploughed its
way with terrific force into the earth--how far no one could tell.
Clewe determined to descend the hole in search of the shell by
means of an electric elevator. Margaret Raleigh, to whom he was
engaged, had gone to the seashore, and during her absence, Clewe
planned to make his daring venture.
On the day that Margaret left Sardis, Roland began his preparations for
descending the shaft. He had so thoroughly considered the machinery and
appliances necessary for the undertaking and had worked out all his
plans in such detail, in his mind and upon paper, that he knew exactly
what he wanted to do. His orders for the great length of chain needed
exhausted the stock of several factories, and the engines he obtained
were even more powerful than he had intended them to be; but these he
could procure immediately, and for smaller ones he would have been
obliged to wait.
The circular car which was intended to move up and down the shaft, and
the peculiar machinery connected with it, together with the hoisting
apparatus, were all made in his works. His skilled artisans labored
steadily day and night.
It was ten days before he was ready to make his descent. Margaret was
still at the seashore. They had written to each other frequently, but
neither had made mention of the great shaft. Even when he was ready to
go down, Clewe said nothing to any one of an immediate intention of
descending. There was a massive door which covered the mouth of the pit;
this he ordered locked and went away.
The next morning he walked into the building a little earlier than was
his custom, called for the engineers, and for Bryce, who was to take
charge of everything connected with the descent, and announced that he
was going down that day.
Bryce and the men who were to assist him looked very serious at this.
Indeed, if their employer had been any other man than Roland Clewe, it
is possible they might have remonstrated with him; but they knew him,
and they said and did nothing more than what was their duty.
The door of the shaft was removed, the car which had hung high above it
was lowered to the mouth of the opening, and Roland stepped within it
and seated himself. Above him and around him were placed [v]geological
tools and instruments of many kinds, a lantern, food, and
drink--everything, in fact, which he could possibly be presumed to need
upon this extraordinary journey. A telephone was at his side by which he
could communicate at any time with the surface of the earth. There were
electric bells; there was everything to make his expedition safe and
profitable. Finally he gave the word to start the engines; there were no
ceremonies, and nothing was said out of the common.
When the conical top of the car had descended below the surface, a steel
grating, with holes for the passage of the chains, was let down over the
mouth of the shaft, and the downward journey began. In the floor of the
car were grated openings, through which Clewe could look downward; but,
although the shaft below him was brilliantly illuminated by electric
lights placed beneath the car, it failed to frighten him or make him
dizzy to look down, for the [v]aperture did not appear to be very far
below him. The upper part of the car was partially open, and bright
lights shone upon the sides of the shaft.
As he slowly descended, Clewe could see the various [v]strata appearing
and disappearing in the order in which he knew them. Not far below the
surface he passed cavities which he believed had held water; but there
was no water in them now. He had expected these pockets, and had feared
that upon their edges might be loosened patches of rock or soil, but
everything seemed tightly packed and hard. If anything had been
loosened, it had gone down already.
Down, down he went until he came to the eternal rocks, where the inside
of the shaft was polished as if it had been made of glass. The air
became warmer and warmer, but Clewe knew that the heat would soon
decrease. The character of the rocks changed, and he studied them as he
went down, continually making notes.
After a time the polished rocky sides of the shaft grew to be of a
solemn sameness. Clewe ceased to take notes; he lighted a cigar and
smoked. He tried to imagine what he would come to when he reached the
bottom; it would be some sort of a cave, he thought, in which his shell
had made an opening. He began to imagine what sort of a cave it would
be, and how high the roof was from the floor. Clewe then suddenly
wondered whether his gardener had remembered what he had told him about
the flower-beds in front of the house; he wished certain changes made
which Margaret had suggested. He tried to keep his mind on the
flower-beds, but it drifted away to the cave below. He thought of the
danger of coming into some underground body of water, where he would be
drowned; but he knew that was a silly idea. If the shell had gone
through [v]subterranean reservoirs, the water of these would have run
out, and before it reached the bottom of the shaft would have dissipated
into mist.
Down, down he went. He looked at his watch; he had been in that car only
an hour and a half. Was that possible? He had supposed he was almost at
the bottom. Suddenly his mind reverted to the people above and the
telephone. Why had not some of them spoken to him? It was shameful! He
instantly called Bryce, and his heart leaped with joy when he heard the
familiar voice in his ear. Now he talked steadily on for more than an
hour. He had his gardener summoned, and told the man all that he wanted
done in the flower-beds. He gave many directions in regard to the
various operations at the works. There were two or three inventions in
which he took particular interest, and of these he talked at great
length with Bryce. Suddenly, in the midst of some talk about hollow
steel rods, he told Bryce to let the engines run faster; there was no
reason why the car should go so slowly.
The windlasses moved with a little more rapidity, and Clewe now turned
and looked at an indicator which was placed on the side of the car, a
little over his head. This instrument showed the depth to which he had
descended, but he had not looked at it before, for if anything would
make him nervous, it would be the continual consideration of the depth
to which he had descended.
The indicator showed that he had gone down fourteen and one-eighth
miles. Clewe turned and sat stiffly in his seat. He glanced down and saw
beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading away at the bottom. Then he
turned to speak to Bryce, but to his surprise, he could think of nothing
to say. After that he lighted another cigar and sat quietly.
Some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down
through the gratings in the floor of the car. The electric light
streamed downward through a deep [v]crevice, which did not now fade away
into nothingness, but ended in something dark and glittering. Then, as
he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, Clewe saw that it
was his automatic shell, lying on its side; only a part of it was
visible through the opening of the shaft which he was descending. In an
instant, as it seemed to him, the car emerged from the shaft, and he
seemed to be hanging in the air--at least there was nothing he could see
except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him. But it was
impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! He rang to stop
the car.
"Anything the matter? " cried Bryce.
"Nothing at all," Clewe replied. "It's all right; I am near the
bottom. "
In a state of the highest nervous excitement, Clewe gazed about him. He
was no longer in a shaft; but where was he? Look around on what side he
would, he saw nothing but the light going out from his lamps, light
which seemed to extend indefinitely all about him. There appeared to be
no limit to his vision in any direction. Then he leaned over the side of
his car and looked downward. There lay the great shell directly under
him, although under it and around it, extending as far beneath it as it
extended in every other direction, shone the light from his own lamp.
Nevertheless, that great shell, weighing many tons, lay as if it rested
upon the solid ground!
After a few moments, Clewe shut his eyes; they pained him. Something
seemed to be coming into them like a fine frost in a winter wind. Then
he called to Bryce to let the car descend very slowly. It went down,
down, gradually approaching the great shell. When the bottom of the car
was within two feet of it, Clewe rang to stop. He looked down at the
complicated machine he had worked upon so long, with something like a
feeling of affection. This he knew; it was his own. Gazing upon its
familiar form, he felt that he had a companion in this region of
unreality.
Pushing back the sliding door of the car, Clewe sat upon the bottom and
cautiously put out his feet and legs, lowering them until they touched
the shell. It was firm and solid. Although he knew it must be so, the
immovability of the great mass of iron gave him a sudden shock of
mysterious fear. How could it be immovable when there was nothing under
it--when it rested on air?
But he must get out of that car, he must explore, he must find out.
There certainly could be no danger so long as he clung to the shell.
He cautiously got out of the car and let himself down upon the shell. It
was not a pleasant surface to stand on, being uneven, with great spiral
ribs, and Clewe sat down upon it, clinging to it with his hands.
Presently he leaned over to one side and looked beneath him. The shadows
of that shell went down, down, down into space, until it made him sick
to look at them. He drew back quickly, clutched the shell with his arms,
and shut his eyes. He felt as if he were about to drop with it into a
measureless depth of atmosphere.
[Illustration: He Put Out One Foot]
But he soon raised himself. He had not come down there to be frightened,
to let his nerves run away with him. He had come to find out things.
What was it that this shell rested upon? Seizing two of the ribs with a
strong clutch, he let himself hang over the sides of the shell until his
feet were level with its lower side. They touched something hard. He
pressed them downward; it was very hard. He raised himself and stood
upon the substance which supported the shell. It was as solid as any
rock. He looked down and saw his shadow stretching far beneath him.
It
seemed as if he were standing upon [v]petrified air. He put out one foot
and moved a little, still holding on to the shell. He walked, as if upon
solid air, to the foremost end of the long [v]projectile. It relieved
him to turn his thoughts from what was around him to this familiar
object. He found its conical end shattered.
After a little he slowly made his way back to the other end of the
shell, and now his eyes became somewhat accustomed to the great radiance
about him. He thought he could perceive here and there faint signs of
long, nearly horizontal lines--lines of different shades of light. Above
him, as if it hung in the air, was the round, dark hole through which he
had descended.
He rose, took his hands from the shell, and made a few steps. He trod
upon a horizontal surface, but in putting one foot forward, he felt a
slight incline. It seemed to him, that he was about to slip downward!
Instantly he retreated to the shell and clutched it in a sudden frenzy
of fear.
Standing thus, with his eyes still wandering, he heard the bell of the
telephone ring. Without hesitation he mounted the shell and got into the
car. Bryce was calling him.
"Come up," he said. "You have been down there long enough. No matter
what you have found, it is time for you to come up. "
"All right," said Roland. "You can haul me up, but go very slowly at
first. "
The car rose. When it reached the orifice in the top of the cave of
light, Clewe heard the conical steel top grate slightly as it touched
the edge, for the car was still swinging a little from the motion given
to it by his entrance; but it soon hung perfectly vertical and went
silently up the shaft.
Seated in the car, which was steadily ascending the great shaft, Roland
Clewe took no notice of anything about him. He did not look at the
brilliantly lighted interior of the shaft; he paid no attention to his
instruments; he did not consult his watch, or glance at the dial which
indicated the distance he had traveled. Several times the telephone bell
rang, and Bryce inquired how he was getting along; but these questions
he answered as briefly as possible, and sat looking down at his knees
and seeing nothing.
When he was half-way up, he suddenly became conscious that he was very
hungry. He hurriedly ate some sandwiches and drank some water, and again
gave himself up entirely to mental labor. When, at last, the noise of
machinery above him and the sound of voices aroused him from his
abstraction, and the car emerged upon the surface of the earth, Clewe
hastily slid back the door and stepped out. At that instant he felt
himself encircled by a pair of arms. Bryce was near by, and there were
other men by the engines, but the owner of those arms thought nothing
of this.
"Margaret! " cried Clewe, "how came you here? "
"I have been here all the time," she exclaimed; "or, at least, nearly
all the time. " And as she spoke she drew back and looked at him, her
eyes full of happy tears. "Mr. Bryce telegraphed to me the instant he
knew you were going down, and I was here before you had descended
half-way. "
"What! " he cried. "And all those messages came from you? "
"Nearly all," she answered. "But tell me, Roland--tell me; have you been
successful? "
"I am successful," he answered. "I have discovered everything! "
Bryce came forward.
"I will speak to you all very soon," said Clewe. "I can't tell you
anything now. Margaret, let us go. I wish to talk to you, but not until
I have been to my office. I will meet you at your house in a very few
minutes. " And with that he left the building and fairly ran to his
office.
A quarter of an hour later Roland entered Margaret's library, where she
sat awaiting him. He carefully closed the doors and windows. They sat
side by side upon the sofa.
"Now, Roland," she said, "I cannot wait one second longer. What is it
that you have discovered? "
"When I arrived at the bottom of the shaft," he began, "I found myself
in a cleft, I know not how large, made in a vast mass of transparent
substance, hard as the hardest rock and as transparent as air in the
light of my electric lamps. My shell rested securely upon this
substance. I walked upon it. It seemed as if I could see miles below me.
In my opinion, Margaret, that substance was once the head of a comet. "
"What is the substance? " she asked, hastily.
"It is a mass of solid diamond! "
Margaret screamed. She could not say one word.
"Yes," said he, "I believe the whole central portion of the earth is one
great diamond. When it was moving about in its orbit as a comet, the
light of the sun streamed through this diamond and spread an enormous
tail out into space; after a time this [v]nucleus began to burn. "
"Burn! " exclaimed Margaret.
"Yes, the diamond is almost pure [v]carbon; why should it not burn? It
burned and burned and burned. Ashes formed upon it and encircled it; it
still burned, and when it was entirely covered with ashes it ceased to
be transparent and ceased to be a comet; it became a planet, and
revolved in a different orbit. It still burned within its covering of
ashes, and these gradually changed to rock, to metal, to everything that
forms the crust of the earth. "
She gazed upon him, entranced.
"Some parts of this great central mass of carbon burn more fiercely than
other parts. Some parts do not burn at all. In volcanic regions the
fires rage; where my great shell went down it no longer burns. Now you
have my theory. It is crude and rough, for I have tried to give it to
you in as few words as possible. "
"Oh, Roland," she cried, "it is absurd! Diamond! Why, people will think
you are crazy. You must not say such a thing as that to anybody. It is
simply impossible that the greater part of this earth should be an
enormous diamond. "
"Margaret," he answered, "nothing is impossible. The central portion of
this earth is composed of something; it might just as well be diamond as
anything else. In fact, if you consider the matter, it is more likely to
be, because diamond is a very original substance. As I have said, it is
almost pure carbon. I do not intend to repeat a word of what I have told
you to any one--at least until the matter has been well considered--but
I am not afraid of being thought crazy. Margaret, will you look at
these? "
He took from his pocket some shining substances resembling glass. Some
of them were flat, some round; the largest was as big as a lemon; others
were smaller fragments of various sizes.
"These are pieces of the great diamond which were broken when the shell
struck the bottom of the cave in which I found it. I picked them up as
I felt my way around this shell, when walking upon what seemed to me
solid air. I thrust them into my pocket, and I would not come to you,
Margaret, with this story, until I had visited my office to find out
what these fragments are. I tested them; their substance is diamond! "
Half-dazed, she took the largest piece in her hand.
"Roland," she whispered, "if this is really a diamond, there is nothing
like it known to man! "
"Nothing, indeed," said he.
She sat staring at the great piece of glowing mineral which lay in her
hand. Its surface was irregular; it had many faces; the subdued light
from the window gave it the appearance of animated water. He felt it
necessary to speak.
"Even these little pieces," he said, "are most valuable jewels. "
"Roland," she suddenly cried, excitedly, "these are riches beyond
imagination! What is common wealth to what you have discovered? Every
living being on earth could--"
"Ah, Margaret," he interrupted, "do not let your thoughts run that way.
If my discovery should be put to the use of which you are thinking, it
would bring poverty to the world, not wealth, and every diamond on earth
would be worthless. "
She trembled. "And these--are they to be valued as common pebbles? "
"Oh no," said he; "these broken fragments I have found are to us riches
far beyond our wildest imagination. "
"Roland," she cried, "are you going down into that shaft for more of
them? "
"Never, never, never again," he answered. "What we have here is enough
for us, and if I were offered all the good that there is in this world,
which money cannot buy, I would never go down into that cleft again.
There was one moment, as I stood in that cave, when an awful terror shot
into my soul that I shall never be able to forget. In the light of my
electric lamps, sent through a vast transparent mass, I could see
nothing, but I could feel. I put out my foot, and I found it was upon a
sloping surface. In another instant I might have slid--where? I cannot
bear to think of it! " FRANK E. STOCKTON.
=HELPS TO STUDY=
What happened to Clewe's automatic shell? What did he decide to do?
Tell of the preparations he made for his descent. What occurred
when he reached the end of the shaft? Of what was Clewe thinking so
intently while making his ascent? Why did he go at once to his
office? What conclusion did he reach as to the central part of the
earth? What did he have to prove the correctness of his theory? Why
was he unwilling ever to make the descent again? This story was
written about the end of the nineteenth century: what great
scientific discoveries have been made since then?
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
A Journey to the Center of the Earth--Jules Verne.
The Adventures of Captain Horn--Frank R. Stockton.
FOOTNOTE:
[391-*] Copyright by Harper & Brothers.
A STOP AT SUZANNE'S
The author of this sketch, a young American aviator, a resident of
Richmond, Virginia, was killed in battle in August, 1918.
Suzanne is a very pretty girl, I was told, but the charm of "Suzanne's"
wasn't with her alone, for, always, one spoke of the deliciously-tasting
meal, how nice the old madame is, and how fine a chap is her _mari_, the
father of Suzanne. Then of the garden in the back--and before you had
finished listening you didn't know which was the most important thing
about "Suzanne's. " All you knew was that it was the place to go when on
an aeroplane voyage.
At the pilotage office I found five others ahead of me; all of us were
bound in the same direction. We were given [v]barographs, altimeters and
maps and full directions as to forced landings and what to do when lost.
We hung around the voyage hangar until about eight in the morning, but
there was a low mist and cloudy sky, so we could not start out until
afternoon; and I didn't have luncheon at "Suzanne's. "
After noon several of the others started out, but I wanted to plan my
supper stop for the second point, so I waited until about four o'clock
before starting.
Almost before I knew it a village, which on the map was twelve
kilometers away, was slipping by beneath me and then off to one side was
a forest, green and cool-looking and very regular around the edges.
Pretty soon I came to a deep blue streak bordered by trees, and was so
interested in it--it wound around under a railroad track, came up and
brushed by lots of back gates and, finally, fell in a wide splash of
silver over a little fall by a mill--that I forgot all about flying and
suddenly woke up to the fact that one wing was about as low as it could
get and that the nose of the machine was doing its best to follow the
wing.
Long before I came to the stopping point, I could see the little white
hangar. The field is not large, but it is strange, so you come down
rather anxiously, for if you can't make that field the first time, you
never will be able to fly, they tell you before leaving. I glided down
easily enough, for, after all, it is just that--either you can or you
can't--and made a good-enough landing. The sergeant signed my paper, and
a few minutes later away I went for "Suzanne's. " The next stop is near a
little village--Suzanne's village--so when I came to the field and
landed I was sure to be too tired to go up again immediately. Instead,
off I went to town after making things right with the man in charge.
That wasn't a bit difficult, either, for all I did was to wink as hard
as I could, and he understood perfectly.
I knew where "Suzanne's" was, so I made directly for it. It was a little
early, but you should never miss the [v]_apertif_. With that first,
success is assured; without it, it is like getting out of bed on the
wrong foot.
Up I marched to the unimposing door and walked in to the main room--a
big room, with long, wooden tables and benches and a zinc bar at one
end, where all kinds of bottles rested. It isn't called "Suzanne's," of
course; it only has that name among us.
As I closed the door behind me and looked about, a _bonne_ was serving
several men at a corner table, and behind the bar a big, red-faced,
stout man was pouring stuff into bottles. He looked at me a moment and
then with a tremendous "_Tiens! _" he came out from behind the tables and
advanced toward me.
"_Bon jour_," he said; "do you come from far? "
"Oh, no," I answered, "only from ----. "
"_Tiens! _" he repeated; then, "Ah, you are from the school. " _L'ecole_,
he called it.
From _l'ecole_, I admitted, and, taking me by the arm, he led me to a
door at the rear. Through this he propelled me, and then in his huge
voice he called "_Suzanne, un [v]pilote! _" and I was introduced.
As he shut the door, I could just see the corner table with the three
old men staring open-mouthed, the wine before them forgotten, the bread
and cheese in their hands untasted; then, down the stairs came light
steps and a rustle of skirts, and Suzanne was before me with smiling
face and outstretched hand.
Her instant welcome, the genuine smile! Almost immediately, I understood
the fame of this little station, so far from everything but the air
route.
Her charm is indescribable. She is pretty, she is well dressed, but it
isn't that. It is a sincerity of manner, complete hospitality; at once
you are accepted as a bosom friend of the family--that is the charm of
Suzanne's.
After a few questions as to where I came from, how long I had been
there, and where I was going, Suzanne led me upstairs to be presented to
[v]"_Ma belle mere_," a white-haired old lady sitting in a big,
straight-backed chair. Then, after more courtesies had been extended to
me, Suzanne preceded me down to the garden and left me alone while she
went in to see that the supper was exceptionally good.
A soft footstep on the gravel walk sounded behind me, and I turned to
see one of the most beautiful women I ever beheld. She was tall and
slender, and as she came gracefully across the lawn she swung a little
work bag from one arm. All in black she was, with a lace shawl over her
bare head. Like every one in that most charming and hospitable house,
there was no formality or show about her. She came, smiling, and sat on
the bench beside me, drawing open her work bag. I could not help
noticing, particularly, her beautiful eyes, for they told the story, a
story too common here, except that her eyes had changed now to an
expression of resigned peace. Then she told me about Suzanne.
Long before, ages and ages ago it seemed, but really only four years, a
huge, ungainly bird fell crashing to earth and from the wreck a man was
taken, unconscious. He was carried to "Suzanne's," and she nursed him
and cared for him until he was well again. "Suzanne was very happy
then," madame told me. And no wonder, for the daring aviator and Suzanne
were in love. She nursed him back to health, but when he went away he
left his heart forever with her.
They were engaged, and every little while he would fly over from his
station to see Suzanne. Those were in the early days and aviation--well,
even at that, it hasn't changed so much.
One day a letter came for Suzanne, and with a catch at her throbbing
heart she read that her _fiancé_ had been killed. [v]"_Mort pour la
patrie_," it said, and Suzanne was never the same afterward.
For many months the poor girl grieved, but, finally, she began to
realize that what had happened to her had happened to thousands of other
girls, too, and, gradually, she took up the attitude that you find
throughout this glorious country. Only her eyes now tell the sad story.
One evening two men walked into the café and from their talk Suzanne
knew they were from _l'ecole_. She sat down and listened to them. They
talked about the war, about aviation, about deeds of heroism, and
Suzanne drank in every word, for they were talking the language of her
dead lover. The two aviators stayed to dinner, but the big room was not
good enough. They must come back to the family dinner--to the intimacy
of the back room.
They stayed all night and left early next morning, but before they left
they wrote their names in a big book. To-day, Suzanne has the book,
filled full of names, many now famous, many names that are only a
memory--that is how it started.
When the two pilots went back to _l'ecole_, they spoke in glowing terms
of "Suzanne's," of the soft beds, of the delicious dinner, and, I think,
mostly of Suzanne.
