Lost on the Moon, Roy Rockwood [best reads of all time .txt] 📗

CHAPTER XXIII

LOST ON THE MOON

 

Notwithstanding that they were somewhat accustomed to having accidents

happen, it was not with the most pleasant feelings in the world that

the moon travellers contemplated this one. It meant a delay, and a

delay was the one thing they did not want just now.

 

They desired to get to the other side of the moon while the long period

of sunshine gave them an opportunity for observation. True there was

some time yet ere the long night of fourteen days would settle down,

but they felt that they would need every hour of sunshine.

 

“Well, it’s tough luck, but it can’t be helped,” said Mark.

 

“No, let’s get right to work,” suggested Jack.

 

They got out their tools and started to repair the two pumps. It was

found that the Cardite motor was not badly damaged, one of the negative

electrical plates merely having been smashed by a piece of the broken

connecting rod of the air pump. It was only a short time before the

motor was ready to run again.

 

But it could not be successfully operated without the air and water

pumps, and it was necessary to fix them next. New gaskets were needed,

while an extra valve and some sliding gears had to be replaced.

 

“It’s an all day’s job,” remarked Professor Henderson.

 

But many hands made light work, and even Washington and Andy were

called upon to do their share. By dinner time the work was more than

half done, and Professor Roumann, announced that he and Mr. Henderson

would finish it if Jack and Mark would take a look at the exterior of

the projectile, to see if any repairs were needed to that.

 

The boys found that some of the exterior piping had become loosed at

the joints, because of the jar of the sudden descent, and, taking the

necessary tools outside, while they stuck their life-torches upright

near them, they labored away.

 

At four o’clock the two lads had their task completed, and at the same

time Professor Henderson announced that the air and water pumps were

now in good shape again.

 

“Then let’s get under way at once,” suggested Mr. Roumann. “We have

lost enough time as it is. Hurry inside, boys, and we’ll start.”

 

The two chums were glad enough to do so, and in a few minutes they were

again moving through the air toward the unknown portion of the moon.

 

Below the travellers, as they could see by looking down through a

plate-glass window in the floor of the projectile, were the same rugged

peaks, the same large and small craters that had marked the surface of

the moon from the time they had first had a glimpse of it. There was an

uninteresting monotony about it, unrelieved by any save the very

sparest vegetation.

 

“I am beginning to think more and more that we will find people on the

other side of this globe,” remarked Mr. Roumann, as he made an

observation through a telescope.

 

“What strengthens your belief?” inquired Mr. Henderson.

 

“The fact that the vegetation is growing thicker. There are many more

plants below us now than there were before. This part of the moon is

better able to support life than the portion we have just come from.”

 

This seemed to be so, but they were still some distance from the

opposite side of the moon.

 

“I don’t see anything of those diamonds you talked so much about,

Jack,” said Mark, with a smile, a little later. “I guess all the

Reonaris you get you can put in a hollow tooth.”

 

“You wait,” was all Jack replied.

 

The projectile was slowed up to permit the two professors to make some

notes regarding a particularly large and deep crater, and a few minutes

later when Mark, who was in the engine room, attempted to speed up the

Cordite motor it would not respond.

 

“Humph! I wonder what’s wrong?” he asked of Jack.

 

“Better call Mr. Roumann, and not try to fix it yourself,” suggested

his chum, when, in response to various movements of the lever, the

machine seemed to go slower and slower.

 

The German came in answer to the summons.

 

“Ha!” he exclaimed, “that motor is broken again. We shall have to stop

once more for repairs. I shall need to take it all apart, I fear. Get

me the negative plate remover, will you, Mark?”

 

The lad went to the tool chest for it. He opened the lid and fumbled

about inside.

 

“It doesn’t seem to be here,” he announced.

 

“What! the negative plate remover not there?” cried the professor.

“Why, it must be. It is one of the new tools we got, and it has not

been used for anything; has it?”.

 

“Oh, by Jinks!” cried Jack suddenly.

 

“What’s the matter?” asked his chum.

 

“That plate remover! Don’t you remember you and I had it when we were

fixing the pipes outside the projectile, when we had the other

breakdown? We must have left it back there on the ground.”

 

Jack and his chum gazed blankly at each other.

 

“I guess we did,” admitted Mark dubiously.

 

“And it is the only one we have,” said Mr. Roumann. “We need it very

much, too, for the projectile can’t very well be moved without it.”

 

“How can we get it?” asked Jack. “I’m sorry. It was my fault.”

 

“It was as much mine as yours,” asserted Mark. “I guess it’s up to us

to go back after it. It isn’t far. We can easily walk it.”

 

There seemed to be nothing else to do, and, after some discussion, it

was decided to have the two boys walk back after the missing tool,

which was a very valuable one.

 

“Take fresh life-torches with you,” advised Mr. Henderson, “and you had

better carry some food with you. It may be farther back than you think,

and you may get hungry.”

 

“I guess it will be a good thing to take some lunch along,” admitted

Jack. “And some water, too. We can’t get a drink here unless we come to

a spring, and we haven’t seen any since we arrived.”

 

“I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind,” said Andy. “I may see something

to shoot.”

 

The three of them, each one carrying a freshly charged vapor-torch, a

basket of food and a bottle of water, started off, well wrapped in

their fur coats. Andy had a compass to enable them to make their way

back to where the tool was left, for, amid the towering peaks and the

valley-like depressions, very little of the level surface of the moon

could be seen at a time.

 

They walked on for several hours, every now and then hoping that they

had reached the place where the projectile had been halted, and where

they expected to find the tool. But so many places looked alike that

they were deceived a number of times.

 

At length, however, they reached the spot and found the instrument

where Jack had carelessly dropped it. They picked it up and turned to

go back, when Andy Sudds saw a large crater off to one side.

 

“Boys, I’m going to have a look down that,” he said. “It may contain a

bear or wildcat, and I can get a shot.”

 

“Guess there isn’t much danger of a bear being on the moon,” said Mark,

but the old hunter leaned as far over the edge of the crater as he

dared.

 

“No, there’s nothing here,” he announced, with almost a sigh, and he

straightened up. As he did so there came a tinkling sound, as if some

one had dropped a piece of money.

 

“What’s that?” asked Jack.

 

“By heck! It’s the compass!” cried Andy. “It slipped from my pocket

when I stooped over. Now it’s gone!”

 

There was no question of that. They could hear the instrument tinkling

far down in the unfathomable depths, striking from side to side of the

crater as it went down and down.

 

“We’ll never see that again,” spoke Mark dubiously. “Can we get back to

the projectile without it?” asked Jack.

 

“Oh, I fancy I can pick my trail back,” answered the hunter. “It isn’t

going to be easy, for there are no landmarks to guide me, but I’ll do

my best. I ought to have known better than to put a compass in that

pocket.”

 

It was not with very light hearts that they started back, and for a

time they went cautiously. Then, as they seemed to get on familiar

ground, they increased their pace and covered several miles.

 

“Say,” remarked. Jack, as he sat down on a big stone. “I don’t know how

the rest of you feel, but I’m tired. We’ve come quite a distance since

we picked up that tool.”

 

“Yes, farther than it took us to find it after we left the projectile,”

added Mark. “I wonder if we’re going right?”

 

The two boys looked at Andy. He scratched his head in perplexity.

 

“I can’t be sure, but it seems to me that we came past here,” he said.

“I seem to remember that big rock.”

 

“There are lots like it,” observed Jack.

 

“Suppose we try over to the left,” spoke Mark,