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wonderful,” murmured Professor Henderson. “We will be able

to gain much valuable scientific knowledge here, Professor Roumann. We

must at once begin our observations.”

 

“I agree with you,” spoke the German.

 

Andy Sudds said nothing. He was looking around for a sight of game,

with his rifle in readiness. But not a sign of life met his eager eyes.

 

Once they were outside the projectile it was even more desolate than it

had seemed when they looked from the observation windows. It was

absolutely still. Not a breath of wind fanned their cheeks, for where

there is no air to be heated and cooled there could be no wind which is

caused by the differences of temperature of the air, the cold rushing

in to fill the vacuum caused by the rising of the hot vapors. Clad in

their fur-lined garments, which effectually defied the cold, the

adventurers stepped out.

 

Over the rugged ground they went, gazing curiously about them. It was

like being in the wildest part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains of our

earth, and, in fact, the surface of the moon was not unlike the

mountainous and hilly sections of the earth. There were no long ranges

of rugged peaks, though, but rather scattered pinnacles and deep

hollows, great craters adjoining immense, towering steeples of rocks,

with comparatively level ground in between.

 

The life-torches worked to perfection. As our friends carried them,

there arose about their bodies a cloud of invisible vapor, which,

however, was as great a protection from the poisonous gases as a coat

of mail would have been.

 

“This is great!” exclaimed Jack. “It’s much better than to have to put

on a diving-suit and carry a cylinder of oxygen or compressed air about

on our shoulders.”

 

They strolled away from the projectile and gazed back at it. Nothing

moved—not a sound broke the stillness. There was only the blazing

sunlight, which, however, did not seem to warm the atmosphere much, for

it was very chilly. On every side were great rocks, rugged and broken,

with here and there immense fissures in the surface of the moon,

fissures that seemed miles and miles long.

 

“Well, here’s where I look for diamonds,” called Jack, as he stepped

boldly out, followed by Mark. “Let’s see who’ll find the first

sparkler.”

 

“All right,” agreed his chum, and they strolled away together, slightly

in advance of the two professors and Andy, who remained together, the

scientist discussing the phenomena on every side and the hunter looking

in vain for something to shoot. But he had come to a dead world.

 

Almost before they knew it Jack and Mark had gone on quite some

distance. Though they were not aware of it at that moment, it was much

easier to walk on the moon than it was on the earth, for they weighed

only one sixth as much, and the attraction of gravitation was so much

less.

 

But suddenly Jack remembered that curious fact, and, stooping, he

picked up a stone. He cast it from him, at the same time uttering a

yell.

 

“What’s the matter?” called Mark.

 

“Look how far I fired that rock!” shouted Jack. “Talk about it being

easy! why, I believe I could throw a mile if I tried hard!”

 

“It goes six times as far as it would on the earth,” spoke his chum,

“and we can also jump six times as far.”

 

“Then let’s try that!” proposed Jack. “There’s a nice level place over

there. Come on, I’ll wager that I can beat you.”

 

“Done!” agreed Mark, and they hurried to the spot, their very walking

being much faster than usual.

 

“I’ll go first,” proposed Jack, “and you see if you can come up to me.”

He poised himself on a little hummock of rock, balanced himself for a

moment, and then hurled himself through space.

 

Prepared as he was, in a measure, for something strange, he never

bargained for what happened. It was as if he had been fired from some

catapult of the ancient Romans. Through the air he hurtled, like some

great flying animal, covering fifty feet from a standing jump.

 

“Say, that’s great!” yelled Mark. “Here I come, and I’ll beat–-”

 

He did not finish, for a cry of horror came from Jack.

 

“I’m going to fall into a crater—a bottomless pit! I’m on the edge of

it!” yelled the lad who had jumped.

 

And, with horror-stricken eyes, Mark saw his chum disappear from sight

beyond a pile of rugged rocks, toward which he had leaped. The last

glimpse Mark had was of the life-torch, which Jack held up in the air,

close to his head.

 

“Jack—in a crater!” gasped Mark, as he ran forward, holding his own

life-torch close to his mouth and nose.

CHAPTER XXI

WASHINGTON SEES A GHOST

 

Advancing by leaps and bounds, and getting over the ground in a manner

most surprising, Mark soon found himself on the edge of the great,

yawning crater, into which his chum Jack had started to slide. I say

started, for, fortunately, the lad had been saved from death but by a

narrow margin.

 

As Mark gazed down into the depths, which seemed fathomless, and which

were as black as night, he saw his friend clinging to a rocky

projection on the side of the extinct volcano. Jack had managed to

grasp a part of the rough surface as he slid down it after his reckless

jump. He looked up and saw Mark.

 

“Oh, Mark, can’t you save me?” he gasped. “Call Professor Henderson!”

 

“I’ll get you up, don’t worry!” called Mark, as confidently as he

could. “Hold tight, Jack. What has become of your life-torch?”

 

“I have it here by me. I didn’t drop it, and it’s on a piece of the

rock near my head. Otherwise I couldn’t breathe. Oh, this place is

fearfully deep. I guess it hasn’t any bottom.”

 

“Now, keep still, and don’t think about that. Save your strength, hold

fast, and I’ll get you up.”

 

But, having said that much, Mark was not so sure how next to proceed.

It was going to be no easy task to haul up Jack, and that without ropes

or other apparatus. Another matter that added to the danger was the

necessity of keeping the life-torch close to one’s face in order to

prevent death by the poisonous gases.

 

Mark’s first impulse was to hasten back and call the two professors,

but he looked over the desolate landscape, and could not see them, and

he feared that if he went away Jack might slip and fall into the

unknown depths of the crater.

 

“I’ve got to get him out alone,” decided Mark. “But how can I do it?”

 

He crawled cautiously nearer to the edge of the extinct volcano and

looked down. A few loose stones, dislodged by his weight, rattled down

the sides.

 

“Look out!” cried Jack quickly, “or you’ll fall, too!”

 

“I’ll be careful,” answered Mark, and then he drew away out of danger,

with a queer feeling about his heart, which was beating furiously. Mark

had hoped to be able to make his way down the side of the crater to

where his chum was and help him up. But a look at the steep sides and

the uncertain footing afforded by the loose rocks of lava-like

formation showed that this could not be done.

 

“I’ve got to think of a different scheme,” decided Mark, and, spurred

on by the necessity of acting quickly if he was to save Jack, he fairly

forced his brain to work. For he saw by the strained look on his chum’s

face that Jack could not hold out much longer.

 

“I have it!” cried Mark at length. “My fur coat! I can cut it into

strips of hide and make a rope. Then I can lower it down to Jack and

haul him up.”

 

He did not think, for the moment, of the cold he would feel when he

stripped off the fur garment, and when it did come to him in a flash he

never hesitated.

 

“After all, I’ve often been out without an overcoat on cold days,” he

said to himself. “I guess I can stand it for a while, and when Jack is

up I can run back to the projectile and keep warm that way.”

 

To think was to act, and Mark laid down his life-torch to take off the

big fur coat. The next instant he had toppled over, almost in a faint,

and, had he not fallen so that his head was near the small perforated

box on the end of the steel rod, whence came the life-giving gas, the

lad might have died.

 

He had forgotten, for the instant, the necessity of always keeping the

torch close to his face to prevent the poisonous gases of the moon from

overpowering him. Mark soon revived while lying on the ground, and,

rising, with his torch in his hand, he looked about him.

 

“I’ve got to have my two hands to work with,” he mused, “and yet I’ve

got to hold this torch close to my face. Say, a fellow ought to have

three hands if he’s going to visit the moon. What can I do?”

 

In an instant a plan came to him. He thrust the pointed end of the

steel rod in the crevice of some rocks, and it stood upright, so that

the perforated box of chemicals was on a level with his face.

 

“There,” said Mark aloud, “I guess that will work. I can use both my

hands now.” The plan was a good one. Next, taking off his coat, the lad

proceeded to cut it into strips, working rapidly. He called to Jack

occasionally, bidding him keep up his courage. “I’ll soon have you

out,” he said cheeringly.

 

In a few minutes Mark had a long, stout strip of hide, and, taking his

life-torch with him, he advanced once more to the edge of the crater.

He stuck the torch in between some rocks, as before, and looked down at

Jack.

 

“I—I can’t hold on much longer,” gasped the unfortunate lad. “Hurry,

Mark!”

 

“All right. I’m going to haul you up now. Can you hold on with one hand

long enough to slip the loop of this rope over your shoulders?”

 

“I guess so. But where did you get a rope?”

 

“I made it—cut up my fur coat.”

 

“But you’ll freeze!”

 

“Oh, I guess not. Here it comes, Jack. Get ready!”

 

Mark lowered the hide rope to his chum. The latter, who managed to get

one toe on a small, projecting rock, while he held on with his right

hand, used his left to adjust the loop over his shoulders and under his

arms.

 

“Are you all ready?” asked Mark.

 

“Yes, but can you pull me up?”

 

“Sure. I’m six times as strong as when on the earth. Hold steady now,

and keep the torch close to your face.”

 

Mark had placed some pieces of his fur coat under the rope where it

passed over the edge of the mouth of the crater to prevent the jagged

rocks from cutting the strips of hide.

 

“Here you come!” he cried to Jack, and he began to haul, taking care to

keep his own head near his torch, which was stuck upright. Mark had

spoken truly when he said he possessed much more than his usual

strength. Any one who has tried to haul up a person with a rope from a

hole, and with no pulleys to adjust the strain of the cable, knows what

a task it is.

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