On a Torn-Away World Part 3

"But, Professor!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mark, warmly. "Are you to be driven off to Alaska at your age to hunt for this herb--which is perhaps only the hallucination of a madman?" "Mark's. .h.i.t the nail on the head, Professor!" declared Jack. "I believe this Todd must certainly be 'touched' in his upper story."

"Am _I_ touched, as you call it, Jack?" demanded Professor Henderson, in some indignation.

"But you don't believe Todd is on the trail of any great discovery?"

cried Mark.

"Why not? Mind may yield to herbal treatment. Todd is an advanced botanical adherent. He believes almost anything can be accomplished by herbs. And he says he has successfully treated one case."

"One swallow doesn't make a summer," remarked Mark, doubtfully.

"But it is enough that he wants us to find the herb," said the professor, more vigorously.

"'Us'!" repeated Jack.

"And he will pay us any reasonable price for our work," added their mentor.

"He really means to go!" cried Mark.

"I certainly do. I think you and Jack will accompany me," said the professor, quietly. "I know that Washington will, and of course Andy will not be left behind."

"Not if there'll be a chance at big game," declared the hunter. "I'm with you, Professor Henderson."

"Yo' suah can't git erlong widout me, I s'pose?" queried the darkey, in some uncertainty. "I'se mighty busy right yere jes' now."

"And you'll be busy if we go to Alaska, Wash!" cried Jack. "Hurrah!

I am willing to start to-morrow, Professor."

"And you, Mark?" queried the old gentleman of his other adopted son.

"How will we go, sir? We shall be until fall traveling to the Arctic Circle by any usual means."

"True," said the professor. "And haste is imperative. I cannot spend much time in this matter. We must take unusual means of getting to the Endicott Range."

"What do you mean?" asked the boys in chorus.

"Your _s...o...b..rd_ is ready for flight. It can be provisioned and will take us all quicker than by any other means. Therefore in the _s...o...b..rd_ we will make the journey."

CHAPTER III

THE FLIGHT OF THE s...o...b..RD

Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson were glad enough to be of the party aiming to reach northern Alaska and the Endicott Range, if Professor Henderson really intended going to find the strange herb for which Dr. Todd was willing to pay so generously.

Of discussion, pro and con, there was much. Indeed, they sat up until after midnight after the reading of Dr. Todd's letter, talking over the contemplated journey, and gradually the details of the trip, including all preparations for it, were worked out.

Jack and Mark put into the affair, once they were determined to aid the professor, their characteristic energy. Professor Henderson wired his brother scientist that he would undertake the journey to Alaska, and accepted the ten thousand dollars to defray expenses. Andy Sudds made characteristic preparations for hunting the big game of the Alaskan mountains. Washington White built a traveling coop of very light but strong material for his pet Shanghai, and then announced himself as ready to depart for the Arctic Circle.

The instructions and map furnished by Dr. Todd, locating the very spot beyond the Endicott Range where the rare herb had been plucked by the miner, showed it to be in a very wild region indeed. There was a native settlement named Aleukan within a hundred miles of the valley where the herb was supposed to grow in abundance. Professor Henderson determined to lay their course for this place.

But the nearest white man's town was Coldfoot, on the other side of the mountains. There was a trail, however, pa.s.sable in summer for a dogtrain from Coldfoot to Aleukan; and a dogtrain could likewise pa.s.s from the native village to the valley where the miner had found the herb.

These facts the professor and his young a.s.sociates discovered as soon as Dr. Todd's instructions arrived. They made their plans accordingly.

By telegraph the professor ordered a trainload of supplies to be started at once from Fort Yukon. First, these supplies would go by boat down the Yukon Flats and up the Chandler River, past Chandler and Caro, beyond which latter town there was a good road over a small range of hills to Coldfoot. This trail was open at all seasons and there was a regular system of transportation into Coldfoot.

From that town dogs and men would be hired to take the supplies on to Aleukan. These arrangements were made through an express company, and in three days the professor received word that the supplies were already aboard a small steam vessel which had left the Fort Yukon dock for the trip to Caro.

The trip by boat and overland for the supply train would consume about a week or two, providing nothing untoward happened to delay it. And the season was favorable to a quick journey.

But the professor and his young comrades figured that the _s...o...b..rd_, following the shortest air-line to the far side of the Endicott Range, could make the trip in much shorter time. The distance "as the crow flies" was from 3,700 to 3,800 miles from their point of departure.

Under favorable conditions the great flying machine should travel ninety miles an hour on the average. Unless there was a breakdown, or they ran into a heavy storm, which would necessitate their descending to the earth, they could count upon the _s...o...b..rd_ being in the vicinity of Aleukan within three or four days' time at the longest.

In the flying machine itself they could carry a supply of concentrated foods, medicines, necessities of many kinds, and their arms. It was probable that meat could be had for the killing in the valley to which they were bound, and the Indians at Aleukan could be hired to supply necessary food for a time. But the professor did not propose to take his friends into the wilderness without completely warding off disaster.

Considerable s.p.a.ce in the _s...o...b..rd_ was occupied by Professor Henderson's scientific instruments. He was amply supplied with powerful field gla.s.ses, a wonderful telescope, partly of his own invention; instruments for the measuring of mountains heights, the recording of seismic disturbances, and many other scientific paraphernalia of which Jack and Mark did not know even the uses.

The boys were as well supplied with firearms as Andy Sudds himself.

They knew that they would probably see and be obliged to kill dangerous beasts; and although the several tribes of Indians inhabiting Alaska are all supposed to be semi-civilized and at peace with the whites, they had had experience enough in wild countries before to warn them that the temper of aboriginal man is never to be trusted too far.

Their own readiness for departure in the _s...o...b..rd_ had been gauged by the telegraph dispatches from Fort Yukon. When the final message came that the boat bearing the supplies had started, Professor Henderson asked: "And now, boys, when can we leave by the air route?"

Jack and Mark glanced at each other and nodded. Jack said:

"All you have to do, Professor, is to put your bag aboard the ship and step in. We are ready to start the _s...o...b..rd_ at any moment. Andy has his guns aboard, and plenty of ammunition. Mark and I are all ready. At your word we will leave."

"It is already dark," said the professor, slowly. "Shall we wait until morning?"

"The moon will be up in an hour--and it is almost at its full," Mark said, quickly. "The quicker we are off the better, it seems to me."

"Very well," agreed Professor Henderson. "If you boys say the word, we will start. Is Andy here?"

"He is already aboard--asleep in his bunk," said Jack, "with his best rifle cuddled in the hollow of his arm. He does not propose to be left behind," and the young fellow chuckled.

"And where is Washington White?"

"He's done yere," answered the darkey for himself, and he appeared bearing the traveling coop of Christopher Columbus And-so-forth in his arms.

"Here, Wash!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack. "Surely you are not going to clutter up the flying machine with that thing?"

"An' why fo' not?" sputtered the darkey. "Whatebber has b.u.t.tsy done ter yo', Ma.s.sa Jack, dat yo' should be obfendicated at his 'pearance in de present state ob de obsequies?"

"Then the rooster accompanies the expedition," chuckled Jack. "Only remember, if we have to throw out anything to lighten ship, b.u.t.tsy goes first--even before we are obliged to dispense with _your_ services, Wash!"

"Den we are ready to start," declared the darkey, solemnly. "Nottin'

will now disturb de continuity ob de ebenin's enj'yment. Forward, march, is our motter!"