Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour Read online

  CHAPTER V.

  THE GLORIES OF THE HEAVENS.

  For a month after the last events were chronicled the _Sirius_ pursuedits way steadily towards Mars, without a single exceptional incident.On the second of February, however, when we were about four and aquarter millions of miles from our destination, we were dreadfullyalarmed by a series of majestic natural phenomena.

  On the evening of the day just mentioned, or, rather, what would havebeen evening could we have distinguished night from day, the sun, forthe first time since we left the shadow of Earth, began to shine lessbrightly. As the hours went by he became more and more indistinct,just as he appears through a fog on earth, and finally his fiery rayswere hidden behind vast banks of cloud. The blazing light now became adepressing gloom, just as before a thunderstorm. Our dog evidently feltill at ease, and whined and trembled as with great fear.

  Rapidly the gloom increased. Darker and darker grew the fathomless voidwhich we were crossing, until we were surrounded by one vast blackness,such as no dweller on Earth could ever conceive. The _Sirius_ waslighted with incandescent lamps, but these only served to make theawful darkness more profound. This terror-inspiring gloom seemed toenter our very souls; we could not only see it, we could absolutelyfeel it. The Sun seemed as though he had finally burnt himself out, anddisappeared for ever from the spangled firmament, leaving all withinthe focus of his once-glorious rays in unutterable chaotic blackness.It was as though we had penetrated into the very womb of the universe,where no light could ever be!

  "I think this is absolutely the most dreadful of our many weirdexperiences," said Temple to the Doctor.

  "It is sublimely grand," answered the Doctor, "and only shows howinfinitely little man knows of the forces of Nature away from his ownplanet."

  "Doctor, there is something wrong with our compasses. The needlesare revolving with great velocity. I trust the presence of all thiselectricity round us will not injure any"--

  Before Graham could finish, the whole firmament seemed lit up with adazzling purple light, and a moment afterwards we were struck dumb withhorror at the awful sound which followed it. For a moment the _Sirius_seemed about to fall to pieces; every bolt and plate in her vibrated,and we gave ourselves up for lost. The frightful explosion was likenothing heard on Earth: ten thousand thunder-claps in one would be buta feeble imitation of that terrible discharge, which was gone in amoment without a single echo to mark its departure!

  Far in the distance we could hear mighty cracking sounds coming nearerand nearer, and then dying away in space. Clap after clap of this awfulthunder shook the very vault of heaven in their awful intensity;and flash after flash of brilliant light lit up the vast void acrosswhich we were travelling. How the _Sirius_ escaped utter annihilationamidst all this mighty display was a mystery to us all. It oscillatedtremendously, as though at the mercy of conflicting currents, andreeled like a ship in a heavy gale. What appeared to be glowing meteorsrushed by us with a deafening roar, or exploded with a terrible crash.Vast expanses of space were filled with brilliant light, sometimeslike glowing mountains and cave-grottoes of fire. Vast sheets of blueand yellow flame rolled up with a crackling noise like huge scrollsof parchment, or curled and twisted into the most grotesque shapes.Purple, yellow, and blue tongues of flame shot across the darkness,sometimes silently as the sheet-lightning of Earth, but more oftenfollowed by loud and sharp reports.

  Great quantities of fine magnetic dust accumulated on the balconyof the _Sirius_, and once a large globe of purple fire dropped onthe roof, and bounded away again into space. As the electricaldischarges gradually became less violent, the whole vault of spaceabove us was lit up with one vast aurora, whose enchanting glorieswere utterly beyond description. Every colour of the rainbow, everycombination of colour that man could conceive, was there, all blendedinto one gorgeous flare of tinted light. Temple, Graham, and Sandy,though no cowards, were at last compelled to turn their amazed andwonder-stricken faces from this appalling scene; but Doctor Hermann,with blanched cheeks, watched the wonderful phenomena, cool andintrepid among all the fiery strife, controlling his emotions withwhat must have been an almost superhuman effort of will.

  Throughout this period of unparalleled darkness our air was very bad,and the condensers working at their utmost pressure could scarcely keepup a sufficient supply of breathable atmosphere. Most of our electricalapparatus was thrown out of order. We were able to generate littleelectricity during this wonderful phenomenon, and had it not been forthe store of this force we always had by us, our engines would havebeen stopped. We failed absolutely to obtain water from the ether, solong as we were surrounded by these meteoric clouds.

  The view of the heavens through our telescope was now exceedinglybeautiful.

  During the first week of March, a stupendous comet made its appearancebetween the _Sirius_ and Earth, and such was its exceeding brilliancythat for days it was visible to the naked eye.

  Another uneventful month passed away, the only occurrence of interestbeing the apparently rapidly increasing size of Mars. On the 7th ofApril our distance from Earth was 32,000,000 miles, which consequentlyleft us about 2,000,000 more miles to travel. Even in the brilliantsunlight Mars was visible without the aid of a glass, and presented asingularly beautiful and ruddy aspect. We were, as yet, too far away todistinguish much of its physical features, but we saw enough to exciteour curiosity and interest to the very utmost.

  Every available moment of our waking hours was spent in discussing thephysical conditions of Mars, and in making our plans for the time whenwe should land upon its surface. Daily we were more and more convincedof the similarity between the physical conditions of the Earth andMars, the most important fact of all being the undoubted presence ofan atmosphere of considerable density. The satellites of Mars were nowbecoming very bright and conspicuous.

  The _Sirius_ continued its rapid flight through space withuninterrupted speed. Our time was mostly spent in astronomicalobservation, and in discussing the beauties of the firmament asrevealed by our telescopes. We never seemed to tire of witnessing theglories of the heavens.

  An interesting fact which we could not fail to observe was theapparently much smaller size of the sun's disc, and a sensible decreaseboth in the amount of his light and the warmth of his rays.

  Life in the _Sirius_ went uniformly on. It seemed ages since we were onearth, or had communion with our fellow-men.

  Every day, Graham carefully recorded the distance we had travelled,and made his report to the Doctor. Our machinery still worked withbeautiful precision, and required but little scrutiny or attention.

  "Well, Doctor," said Temple, one day after work was over, "suppose yougive us an idea of our distance from Mars, and our probable date ofarrival?"

  "What is our distance for the past twenty-four hours, Graham?" askedthe Doctor.

  "Twenty-eight thousand eight hundred miles," he answered.

  "Then we are still travelling at our reduced speed of twelve hundredmiles per hour," rejoined the Doctor. "Well, our last computation ofthe Earth's distance was made on the 7th of April. It is now the 17thof May. One rate of speed has been maintained throughout this interval,so that we are now 33,123,200 miles from Earth, and just 876,800 milesfrom the planet Mars. That distance we shall cover in a little overthirty days. If all goes well, we shall reach Mars on the 18th of June."

  "Your remarks fill me with the strangest sensations," answered Temple.

  "Whatever may come to pass," said the Doctor, "let me impress uponyou the importance of keeping cool, and as free from excitement aspossible. Our next thirty days will be the strangest that mortal manhas ever yet experienced!"