Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space
of the ground.
The excavation of any silo being thus manifestly hopeless, there seemed
nothing to be done except to try and render the buildings alongside the
gourbi impervious to frost. To contribute to the supply of fuel, orders
were given to collect every scrap of wood, dry or green, that the island
produced; and this involved the necessity of felling the numerous
trees that were scattered over the plain. But toil as they might at the
accumulation of firewood, Captain Servadac and his companions could not
resist the conviction that the consumption of a very short period would
exhaust the total stock. And what would happen then?
Studious if possible to conceal his real misgivings, and anxious that
the rest of the party should be affected as little as might be by his
own uneasiness, Servadac would wander alone about the island, racking
his brain for an idea that would point the way out of the serious
difficulty. But still all in vain.
One day he suddenly came upon Ben Zoof, and asked him whether he had no
plan to propose. The orderly shook his head, but after a few moments’
pondering, said: “Ah! master, if only we were at Montmartre, we would
get shelter in the charming stone-quarries.”
“Idiot!” replied the captain, angrily, “if we were at Montmartre, you
don’t suppose that we should need to live in stone-quarries?”
But the means of preservation which human ingenuity had failed to secure
were at hand from the felicitous provision of Nature herself. It was on
the 10th of March that the captain and Lieutenant Procope started off
once more to investigate the northwest corner of the island; on their
way their conversation naturally was engrossed by the subject of
the dire necessities which only too manifestly were awaiting them. A
discussion more than usually animated arose between them, for the two
men were not altogether of the same mind as to the measures that ought
to be adopted in order to open the fairest chance of avoiding a fatal
climax to their exposure; the captain persisted that an entirely
new abode must be sought, while the lieutenant was equally bent upon
devising a method of some sort by which their present quarters might
be rendered sufficiently warm. All at once, in the very heat of his
argument, Procope paused; he passed his hand across his eyes, as if to
dispel a mist, and stood, with a fixed gaze centered on a point towards
the south. “What is that?” he said, with a kind of hesitation. “No, I am
not mistaken,” he added; “it is a light on the horizon.”
“A light!” exclaimed Servadac; “show me where.”
“Look there!” answered the lieutenant, and he kept pointing steadily in
its direction, until Servadac also distinctly saw the bright speck in
the distance.
It increased in clearness in the gathering shades of evening. “Can it be
a ship?” asked the captain.
“If so, it must be in flames; otherwise we should not be able to see it
so far off,” replied Procope.
“It does not move,” said Servadac; “and unless I am greatly deceived, I
can hear a kind of reverberation in the air.”
For some seconds the two men stood straining eyes and ears in rapt
attention. Suddenly an idea struck Servadac’s mind. “The volcano!” he
cried; “may it not be the volcano that we saw, whilst we were on board
the _Dobryna?_”
The lieutenant agreed that it was very probable.
“Heaven be praised!” ejaculated the captain, and he went on in the tones
of a keen excitement: “Nature has provided us with our winter quarters;
the stream of burning lava that is flowing there is the gift of a
bounteous Providence; it will provide us all the warmth we need. No time
to lose! To-morrow, my dear Procope, to-morrow we will explore it all;
no doubt the life, the heat we want is reserved for us in the heart and
bowels of our own Gallia!”
Whilst the captain was indulging in his expressions of enthusiasm,
Procope was endeavoring to collect his thoughts. Distinctly he
remembered the long promontory which had barred the _Dobryna’s_ progress
while coasting the southern confines of the sea, and which had obliged
her to ascend northwards as far as the former latitude of Oran; he
remembered also that at the extremity of the promontory there was a
rocky headland crowned with smoke; and now he was convinced that he was
right in identifying the position, and in believing that the smoke had
given place to an eruption of flame.
When Servadac gave him a chance of speaking, he said, “The more I
consider it, captain, the more I am satisfied that your conjecture is
correct. Beyond a doubt, what we see is the volcano, and to-morrow we
will not fail to visit it.”
On returning to the gourbi, they communicated their discovery to Count
Timascheff only, deeming any further publication of it to be premature.
The count at once placed his yacht at their disposal, and expressed his
intention of accompanying them.
“The yacht, I think,” said Procope, “had better remain where she is;
the weather is beautifully calm, and the steam-launch will answer our
purpose better; at any rate, it will convey us much closer to shore than
the schooner.”
The count replied that the lieutenant was by all means to use his own
discretion, and they all retired for the night.
Like many other modern pleasure-yachts, the _Dobryna_, in addition to
her four-oar, was fitted with a fast-going little steam-launch, its
screw being propelled, on the Oriolle system, by means of a boiler,
small but very effective. Early next morning, this handy little craft
was sufficiently freighted with coal (of which there was still about ten
tons on board the _Dobryna_), and manned by nobody except the captain,
the count, and the lieutenant, left the harbor of the Shelif, much to
the bewilderment of Ben Zoof, who had not yet been admitted into the
secret. The orderly, however, consoled himself with the reflection
that he had been temporarily invested with the full powers of governor
general, an office of which he was not a little proud.
The eighteen miles between the island and the headland were made in
something less than three hours. The volcanic eruption was manifestly
very considerable, the entire summit of the promontory being enveloped
in flames. To produce so large a combustion either the oxygen of
Gallia’s atmosphere had been brought into contact with the explosive
gases contained beneath her soil, or perhaps, still more probable, the
volcano, like those in the moon, was fed by an internal supply of oxygen
of her own.
It took more than half an hour to settle on a suitable landing-place.
At length, a small semi-circular creek was discovered among the rocks,
which appeared advantageous, because, if circumstances should so
require, it would form a safe anchorage for both the _Dobryna_ and the
_Hansa_.
The launch securely moored, the passengers landed on the side of the
promontory opposite to that on which a torrent of burning lava was
descending to the sea. With much satisfaction they experienced, as they
approached the mountain, a sensible difference in the temperature, and
their spirits could not do otherwise than rise at the prospect of having
their hopes confirmed, that a deliverance from the threatened calamity
had so opportunely been found. On they went, up the steep acclivity,
scrambling over its rugged projections, scaling the irregularities of
its gigantic strata, bounding from point to point with the agility of
chamois, but never alighting on anything except on the accumulation of
the same hexagonal prisms with which they had now become so familiar.
Their exertions were happily rewarded. Behind a huge pyramidal rock they
found a hole in the mountain-side, like the mouth of a great tunnel.
Climbing up to this orifice, which was more than sixty feet above the
level of the sea, they ascertained that it opened into a long dark
gallery. They entered and groped their way cautiously along the sides.
A continuous rumbling, that increased as they advanced, made them aware
that they must be approaching the central funnel of the volcano; their
only fear was lest some insuperable wall of rock should suddenly bar
their further progress.
Servadac was some distance ahead.
“Come on!” he cried cheerily, his voice ringing through the darkness,
“come on! Our fire is lighted! no stint of fuel! Nature provides that!
Let us make haste and warm ourselves!”
Inspired by his confidence, the count and the lieutenant advanced
bravely along the unseen and winding path. The temperature was now at
least fifteen degrees above zero, and the walls of the gallery were
beginning to feel quite warm to the touch, an indication, not to be
overlooked, that the substance of which the rock was composed was
metallic in its nature, and capable of conducting heat.
“Follow me!” shouted Servadac again; “we shall soon find a regular
stove!”
Onwards they made their way, until at last a sharp turn brought them
into a sudden flood of light. The tunnel had opened into a vast cavern,
and the gloom was exchanged for an illumination that was perfectly
dazzling. Although the temperature was high, it was not in any way
intolerable.
One glance was sufficient to satisfy the explorers that the grateful
light and heat of this huge excavation were to be attributed to a
torrent of lava that was rolling downwards to the sea, completely
subtending the aperture of the cave. Not inaptly might the scene be
compared to the celebrated Grotto of the Winds at the rear of the
central fall of Niagara, only with the exception that here, instead of
a curtain of rushing water, it was a curtain of roaring flame that hung
before the cavern’s mouth.
“Heaven be praised!” cried Servadac, with glad emotion; “here is all
that we hoped for, and more besides!”
CHAPTER XXI. WINTER QUARTERS
The habitation that had now revealed itself, well lighted and thoroughly
warm, was indeed marvelous. Not only would it afford ample accommodation
for Hector Servadac and “his subjects,” as Ben Zoof delighted to
call them, but it would provide shelter for the two horses, and for a
considerable number of domestic animals.
This enormous cavern was neither more or less than the common junction
of nearly twenty tunnels (similar to that which had been traversed by
the explorers), forming ramifications in the solid rock, and the pores,
as it were, by which the internal heat exuded from the heart of the
mountain. Here, as long as the volcano retained its activity, every
living creature on the new asteroid might brave the most rigorous of
climates; and as Count Timascheff justly remarked, since it was the only
burning mountain they had sighted, it was most probably the sole outlet
for Gallia’s subterranean fires, and consequently the eruption might
continue unchanged for ages to come.
But not a day, not an hour, was to be lost now. The steam-launch
returned to Gourbi Island, and preparations were forthwith taken in hand
for conveying man and beast, corn and fodder, across to the volcanic
headland. Loud and hearty were the acclamations of the little colony,
especially of the Spaniards, and great was the relief of Nina, when
Servadac announced to them the discovery of their future domicile; and
with requickened energies they labored hard at packing, anxious to reach
their genial winter quarters without delay.
For three successive days the _Dobryna_, laden to her very gunwale, made
a transit to and fro. Ben Zoof was left upon the island to superintend
the stowage of the freight, whilst Servadac found abundant occupation in
overlooking its disposal within the recesses of the mountain. First
of all, the large store of corn and fodder, the produce of the recent
harvest, was landed and deposited in one of the vaults; then, on the
15th, about fifty head of live cattle--bullocks, cows, sheep, and