บทที่ บทที่ 42 · A Struggle of Generosity.—The Last Sacrifice.—The Dilating

. A Struggle of Generosity.—The Last Sacrifice.—The Dilating

Apparatus.—Joe’s Adroitness.—Midnight.—The Doctor’s Watch.—Kennedy’s

Watch.—The Latter falls asleep at his Post.—The Fire.—The Howlings of

the Natives.—Out of Range.

Doctor Ferguson’s first care was to take his bearings by stellar

observation, and he discovered that he was scarcely twenty-five miles

from Senegal.

“All that we can manage to do, my friends,” said he, after having

pointed his map, “is to cross the river; but, as there is neither

bridge nor boat, we must, at all hazards, cross it with the balloon,

and, in order to do that, we must still lighten up.”

“But I don’t exactly see how we can do that?” replied Kennedy, anxious

about his fire-arms, “unless one of us makes up his mind to sacrifice

himself for the rest,—that is, to stay behind, and, in my turn, I claim

that honor.”

“You, indeed!” remonstrated Joe; “ain’t I used to—”

“The question now is, not to throw ourselves out of the car, but simply

to reach the coast of Africa on foot. I am a first-rate walker, a good

sportsman, and—”

“I’ll never consent to it!” insisted Joe.

“Your generous rivalry is useless, my brave friends,” said Ferguson; “I

trust that we shall not come to any such extremity: besides, if we did,

instead of separating, we should keep together, so as to make our way

across the country in company.”

“That’s the talk,” said Joe; “a little tramp won’t do us any harm.”

“But before we try that,” resumed the doctor, “we must employ a last

means of lightening the balloon.”

“What will that be? I should like to see it,” said Kennedy,

incredulously.

“We must get rid of the cylinder-chests, the spiral, and the Buntzen

battery. Nine hundred pounds make a rather heavy load to carry through

the air.”

“But then, Samuel, how will you dilate your gas?”

“I shall not do so at all. We’ll have to get along without it.”

“But—”

“Listen, my friends: I have calculated very exactly the amount of

ascensional force left to us, and it is sufficient to carry us every

one with the few objects that remain. We shall make in all a weight of

hardly five hundred pounds, including the two anchors which I desire to

keep.”

“Dear doctor, you know more about the matter than we do; you are the

sole judge of the situation. Tell us what we ought to do, and we will

do it.”

“I am at your orders, master,” added Joe.

“I repeat, my friends, that however serious the decision may appear, we

must sacrifice our apparatus.”

“Let it go, then!” said Kennedy, promptly.

“To work!” said Joe.

It was no easy job. The apparatus had to be taken down piece by piece.

First, they took out the mixing reservoir, then the one belonging to

the cylinder, and lastly the tank in which the decomposition of the

water was effected. The united strength of all three travellers was

required to detach these reservoirs from the bottom of the car in which

they had been so firmly secured; but Kennedy was so strong, Joe so

adroit, and the doctor so ingenious, that they finally succeeded. The

different pieces were thrown out, one after the other, and they

disappeared below, making huge gaps in the foliage of the sycamores.

“The black fellows will be mightily astonished,” said Joe, “at finding

things like those in the woods; they’ll make idols of them!”

The next thing to be looked after was the displacement of the pipes

that were fastened in the balloon and connected with the spiral. Joe

succeeded in cutting the caoutchouc jointings above the car, but when

he came to the pipes he found it more difficult to disengage them,

because they were held by their upper extremity and fastened by wires

to the very circlet of the valve.

Then it was that Joe showed wonderful adroitness. In his naked feet, so

as not to scratch the covering, he succeeded by the aid of the network,

and in spite of the oscillations of the balloon, in climbing to the

upper extremity, and after a thousand difficulties, in holding on with

one hand to that slippery surface, while he detached the outside screws

that secured the pipes in their place. These were then easily taken

out, and drawn away by the lower end, which was hermetically sealed by

means of a strong ligature.

The _Victoria_, relieved of this considerable weight, rose upright in

the air and tugged strongly at the anchor-rope.

About midnight this work ended without accident, but at the cost of

most severe exertion, and the trio partook of a luncheon of pemmican

and cold punch, as the doctor had no more fire to place at Joe’s

disposal.

Besides, the latter and Kennedy were dropping off their feet with

fatigue.

“Lie down, my friends, and get some rest,” said the doctor. “I’ll take

the first watch; at two o’clock I’ll waken Kennedy; at four, Kennedy

will waken Joe, and at six we’ll start; and may Heaven have us in its

keeping for this last day of the trip!”

Without waiting to be coaxed, the doctor’s two companions stretched

themselves at the bottom of the car and dropped into profound slumber

on the instant.

The night was calm. A few clouds broke against the last quarter of the

moon, whose uncertain rays scarcely pierced the darkness. Ferguson,

resting his elbows on the rim of the car, gazed attentively around him.

He watched with close attention the dark screen of foliage that spread

beneath him, hiding the ground from his view. The least noise aroused

his suspicions, and he questioned even the slightest rustling of the

leaves.

He was in that mood which solitude makes more keenly felt, and during

which vague terrors mount to the brain. At the close of such a journey,

after having surmounted so many obstacles, and at the moment of

touching the goal, one’s fears are more vivid, one’s emotions keener.

The point of arrival seems to fly farther from our gaze.

Moreover, the present situation had nothing very consolatory about it.

They were in the midst of a barbarous country, and dependent upon a

vehicle that might fail them at any moment. The doctor no longer

counted implicitly on his balloon; the time had gone by when he

manoevred it boldly because he felt sure of it.

Under the influence of these impressions, the doctor, from time to

time, thought that he heard vague sounds in the vast forests around

him; he even fancied that he saw a swift gleam of fire shining between

the trees. He looked sharply and turned his night-glass toward the

spot; but there was nothing to be seen, and the profoundest silence

appeared to return.

He had, no doubt, been under the dominion of a mere hallucination. He

continued to listen, but without hearing the slightest noise. When his

watch had expired, he woke Kennedy, and, enjoining upon him to observe

the extremest vigilance, took his place beside Joe, and fell sound

asleep.

Kennedy, while still rubbing his eyes, which he could scarcely keep

open, calmly lit his pipe. He then ensconced himself in a corner, and

began to smoke vigorously by way of keeping awake.

The most absolute silence reigned around him; a light wind shook the

tree-tops and gently rocked the car, inviting the hunter to taste the

sleep that stole over him in spite of himself. He strove hard to resist

it, and repeatedly opened his eyes to plunge into the outer darkness

one of those looks that see nothing; but at last, yielding to fatigue,

he sank back and slumbered.

How long he had been buried in this stupor he knew not, but he was

suddenly aroused from it by a strange, unexpected crackling sound.

He rubbed his eyes and sprang to his feet. An intense glare

half-blinded him and heated his cheek—the forest was in flames!

“Fire! fire!” he shouted, scarcely comprehending what had happened.

His two companions started up in alarm.

“What’s the matter?” was the doctor’s immediate exclamation.

“Fire!” said Joe. “But who could—”

At this moment loud yells were heard under the foliage, which was now

illuminated as brightly as the day.

“Ah! the savages!” cried Joe again; “they have set fire to the forest

so as to be the more certain of burning us up.”

“The Talabas! Al-Hadji’s marabouts, no doubt,” said the doctor.

A circle of fire hemmed the _Victoria_ in; the crackling of the dry

wood mingled with the hissing and sputtering of the green branches; the

clambering vines, the foliage, all the living part of this vegetation,

writhed in the destructive element. The eye took in nothing but one

vast ocean of flame; the large trees stood forth in black relief in

this huge furnace, their branches covered with glowing coals, while the

whole blazing mass, the entire conflagration, was reflected on the

clouds, and the travellers could fancy themselves enveloped in a hollow

globe of fire.

“Let us escape to the ground!” shouted Kennedy, “it is our only chance

of safety!”

But Ferguson checked him with a firm grasp, and, dashing at the

anchor-rope, severed it with one well-directed blow of his hatchet.

Meanwhile, the flames, leaping up at the balloon, already quivered on

its illuminated sides; but the _Victoria_, released from her

fastenings, spun upward a thousand feet into the air.

Frightful yells resounded through the forest, along with the report of

fire-arms, while the balloon, caught in a current of air that rose with

the dawn of day, was borne to the westward.

It was now four o’clock in the morning.