Fifteen Hundred Miles An Hour 9

Fifteen Hundred Miles An Hour 9

The following six days were passed without anything unusual occurring.

At dawn on the seventh, we were only about 28,000 miles away from Mars,

and his vast size inspired our hearts with increasing awe.

 

Our last day in the _Sirius_, if all went well, had now arrived.

 

At five o'clock p.m., the planet began to assume a slightly concave

appearance; at six, this became even more pronounced; whilst an hour

later still, when we were only about six thousand miles above its

surface, the horizon seemed almost level with the _Sirius_. Mars now

looked like a huge deep saucer, into which we were rapidly falling.

 

At eight in the evening, as near as we in our terrible state of

excitement could judge, for not one of us referred to our watches, all

doubts respecting the presence of life on Mars were expelled; and to

our indescribable joy we noted dark belts of vegetation, in which the

glittering mountains and active volcanoes were set. Each minute the

scene below us became more grandly beautiful.

 

At a thousand miles above Mars we found we could dispense with our

condensers, and actually sustain life with the atmosphere admitted into

the _Sirius_. This was encouraging, more so than ever we had even dared

to hope; Mars already was beginning to supply every requirement of the

children of the Earth!

 

We now deemed it advisable to reduce our speed somewhat. At a quarter

to twelve we could not have been much more than a hundred miles above

this new world.

 

We now climbed out on to the balcony, and peering down into the dark

depths, it was apparent to us all that the _Sirius_ was over dry land,

although a large sheet of water was visible in the distance, shimmering

in the moonlight.

 

In a few minutes more the good air-ship was hovering a thousand

feet above the Martial planet, and we began making the few final

preparations for our descent upon its surface.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VII.

 

 

OUR ARRIVAL AND SAFE DESCENT.

 

 

As the _Sirius_ gradually descended the last few hundred feet, Sandy

was busy getting out the rope ladder; Graham confined his attention to

the motors and steering apparatus; whilst on the balcony Temple and the

Doctor kept a close watch, the latter on the alert for every possible

contingency, and from time to time calling out instructions to Graham

for his guidance. We all of us remarked the greater buoyancy of the

_Sirius_ in the lower Martial atmosphere than was the case in that of

the Earth, and our descent was slow and easy in the extreme. In fact,

so buoyant had the _Sirius_ become, that we had great fears of ever

reaching ground at all without assistance from below. But eventually

the good _Sirius_ settled down through a dense growth of vegetation of

some kind, snapping tall tapering stems like straws, crashing through

giant reeds like so many grass stalks, and then sinking for a couple

of feet into the soft slimy soil of what was evidently a dismal swampy

jungle. Here, at last, the _Sirius_ came to rest amidst a forest of

mighty stems, whose branches met overhead and formed a gloomy bower

above and around it.

 

We now armed ourselves with our revolvers and hunting-knives before

attempting to pass down the ladder, one end of which was already

lying on the ground. Each one felt that to Doctor Hermann the honour

justly belonged of being the first to set foot on this new world; and,

accordingly, he led the way down the steps into the gloom, carrying a

powerful electric hand-lamp, followed by Temple and Graham; Sandy, with

poor old Rover in his arms, bringing up the rear. The air soon began

to have a most remarkable and exhilarating effect upon us all. Each

one felt a buoyancy of spirits, a sense of lightness, and an increase

of physical strength never known before; these effects we rightly

attributed to the specific gravity of Mars, which is so much less than

that of Earth. They were intensely exciting moments for us as, one by

one, we climbed down the time-and-travel-worn sides of the _Sirius_,

fighting our way through the vegetation which clustered around us,

until the bottom rung of the ladder was reached, and we felt the

ground of a new world beneath our feet. But the country where we had

chanced to descend was sullen and uninviting; even the light from the

Martial moons, shining so fairly, high up in the dark blue sky, failed

to penetrate the dismal shadows of this swampy wilderness; whilst the

lurid reflection in the heavens from a distant crater only intensified

the horrible scene of gloom.

 

But amid the shadows and the vapours of this reeking marsh we could

see sufficient with our lamp to tell us that we were surrounded by

vegetation totally different from anything we had left behind us on

Earth. The reeds were stupendous, with fluted and flattened stems,

eighteen inches in width, rising straight as arrows from the stagnant

water, their crowns lost to view in the night haze, and mingling

together far above the roof of the _Sirius_.

 

The malarious vapours rising from the stagnant water and the rotting

vegetation were deadly in their subtleness, and in spite of our

ever-increasing excitement and curiosity, Doctor Hermann insisted for

our health's sake that we should return to the _Sirius_. A night amidst

such poisonous gases might have stricken each one of us down with a

fatal fever. It was well that we did so, for before morning dawned the

dangers of our position were manifested in various startling ways.

Soon, huge banks of black clouds spread across the sky like shrouds,

and drops of rain began to patter on the windows.

 

"My friends," said Doctor Hermann, "the best advice I can give is that

we stay inside the _Sirius_ until dawn. Sandy had better prepare us

some food; we have not eaten for the past eight hours, and it is of

the greatest importance that we take every care of ourselves, for we

may have our strength and endurance put to the severest tests in the

near future. Besides, this marsh is full of pestilence; we cannot be

too careful: and, further, from the closeness of the atmosphere and the

look of the heavens, I predict a storm within the next hour or so."

 

"You are quite right, Doctor," rejoined Temple; whilst Sandy, as became

the dutiful servant he was, began to act on the Doctor's wishes, and

very soon had spread before us a right royal repast, which bore ample

testimony not only to his culinary skill, but to the still ample

resources of our larder. A bottle of our best wine was uncorked in

honour of the occasion, and we sat down well-prepared to do justice to

what Temple called our "triumphal feast."

 

Convivial and merry was our meal, notwithstanding the dismal

surroundings; and so gay and light-hearted did we feel that even the

reeking swamp was toasted, for, after all, in spite of its gloom and

its pestilential breath, it was the first ground to echo our foot-falls

on this new world.

 

"One more bottle of wine, my comrades," said Temple, as soon as our

meal was over, "and let Sandy have a double allowance of whisky

to-night. We must inaugurate the termination of our journey in a right

festive way."

 

"What a triumph for Science, for Electricity in particular, we have

won!" said Doctor Hermann. "Here's to our continued success, and to the

people of Mars, if such there be----"

 

But before the Doctor could complete his toast the whole apartment was

filled with a lurid flash of bluish light, and before we could recover

from our surprise the vault of heaven was shaken by an appalling peal

of thunder.

 

"The storm is on us, Doctor," exclaimed Graham, "and to all appearance

it is far too close to be pleasant."

 

A few moments after, another and a brighter flash of lightning lit up

the gloomy swamp, and almost simultaneously the thunder bellowed out in

a quick succession of cracking reports, dying away in rumblings and

growlings which were tossed from echo to echo in the wilderness. Then

down came the rain in a drowning deluge, roaring on the foliage, and

churning the surface of the sleeping lake into a torrent of bubbling,

boiling foam.

 

Towards the end of the storm we had another surprise, which filled us

with the direst alarm. An exclamation from Temple brought us all to the

window of the _Sirius_ which overlooked the lake. With blanched face,

and eyes fixed intently upon the water, he pointed to the seething pool.

 

"Tell me if I am mad or dreaming," he shouted in his terror.

 

[Illustration: ITS HUGE, SCALY CARCASS.]

 

Truly, indeed, his alarm was not without cause, for there, coming

slowly from the water on to the shore, and in the direction of the

_Sirius_, was the first representative we had seen of animal life in

Mars. How shall we attempt to describe this hideous amphibious monster,

as it appeared lit up by the almost incessant flashes of lightning?

Only its enormous head and forequarters were yet visible--a huge scaly

carcase, mapped out with phosphorescent light, a square-looking head

with pointed snout, and with two monstrous eyes attached to stalk-like

shafts about a foot in length, which in the brief intervals of darkness

shone like balls of fire. Raising its head on its long pliant neck,

it sniffed the air as if in anger, and then began to crawl out of the

pool, yard after yard of its repulsive body emerging, its head nearly

reaching the _Sirius_ before its tapering fish-like tail was drawn from

the water. We could hear the grinding, crunching sound of its scaly

body as it was slowly drawn along the swampy ground, and so near had

it come to us that we could see a coarse, bushy mane hanging round its

lower neck in dripping folds. The hideous reptile, for such we must

call it, passed on without noticing the _Sirius_, although we felt its

rough, scaly body rub against the sides; and as its hideous, mighty

coils disappeared into the gloomy swamp, leaving a luminous, slimy

track behind them we could detect huge protuberances like warts along

its back, here and there varied with spiky fins, which were from time

to time half-raised, as though the horrible creature were about to

engage in combat.

 

"Doctor," said Temple, in his alarm, "if this is a fair sample of the

creatures we have come to live amongst, I really think it time we

began to think about getting back again. I don't like the idea of such

neighbours at all. Besides, we may yet meet with monsters more terrible

still, and what is of greater importance to us, we may not escape their