A Change Of Plan
: The PanchroniconIt was long after their bed-time and the two sisters were utterly
exhausted; but as the mysterious structure within which they lay glided
northward between heaven and earth with the speed of a meteor, Rebecca
and Phoebe long courted sleep in vain.
The excitement of their past adventures, the unreal wonder of their
present situation, the bewildering possibilities and impossibilities of
their future plans--
midnight. It was not until, speeding due north with the unswerving
obedience of a magnet, their vessel was sailing far above the waters of
the upper Saguenay, that they at length sank to rest.
They were awakened next morning by a knocking upon Rebecca's door.
"It's pretty nigh eight-thirty," Droop cried. "I've got the kettle on
the range, but I don't know what to do nex'."
"What! Why! Who! Where! Sakes! what's this?"
Rebecca sat up in bed, unable to place herself.
"It's pretty nigh half-past eight," Copernicus repeated. "Long after
breakfast-time. I'm hungry!"
By this time Phoebe was wide awake.
"All right!" she cried. "We'll come in a minute."
Then Rebecca knew where she was--or rather realized that she did not
know. But fortunately a duty was awaiting her in the kitchen and this
steadied a mind which seemed to her to need some support in the midst of
these unwonted happenings.
Phoebe was the first to leave her bedroom. She had dressed with
frantic speed. In her haste to get to the windows and see the world from
the sky, she had secured her hair very imperfectly, and Droop was
favored with a charming display of bright locks, picturesquely
disarranged.
"Good-mornin', Cousin Phoebe," he said, with his suavest manner.
"Good-morning, Mr. Droop," Phoebe replied. "Where are we? Is
everything all right?"
She made straight for one of the windows the iron shutters of which were
now open.
"I wish't you'd call me Cousin Copernicus," Droop remarked.
"Oh--oh! What a beautiful world!"
Phoebe leaned her face close to the glass and gazed spell-bound at the
wonderful landscape spread before her.
The whole atmosphere seemed filled with a clear, cold sunlight whose
brilliance irradiated the giant sphere of earth so far away.
Directly below and to the right of their course, as far as she could
see, there was one vast expanse of dark blue sea, gilded dazzlingly over
one portion where the sun's beams were reflected. Far ahead to the north
and as far behind them the sea was bordered with the fantastic curves of
a faint blue coast dotted and lined with the shadows of many a hill and
mountain. It was a map on which she was gazing. Nature's own map--the
only perfect chart in the world.
So new--so intensely, almost painfully, beautiful was this scene that
Phoebe stood transfixed--fascinated. She did not even think of
speaking.
The scene was not so new to Droop--and besides he was a prey to an
insistent appetite. His mental energies, therefore, sought expression in
speech.
Approaching Phoebe's side, he said:
"Mighty pretty, ain't it?"
She did not reply, so he continued:
"That water right under us is Hudson Strait. The ocean to the right is
the Atlantic. Ye can see Hudson's Bay off to the left out o' one o' them
windows. I've ben lookin' it up on the map."
He strolled toward the table, as if inviting Phoebe to see his chart
which lay there unrolled. She did not follow him.
"Yes," he continued, "that's Hudson Strait, and we're four miles high,
an' that's all I'll tell ye till I have my breakfast."
He gazed wistfully at Phoebe, who did not move or speak, but let her
eyes wander in awed delight over the wonders thus brought before them.
Just then Rebecca emerged from her room.
"Good-mornin'," she said. "I guess I'm late."
"Good-mornin', Cousin Rebecca; I guess ye are a mite late. Cousin
Phoebe won't move--so I'm sayin' we're four miles high an' right over
Hudson Strait, an' that's all I'll tell ye till I get my breakfast."
"Goodness me!" exclaimed Rebecca. "Ain't that mos' too high, Mr. Droop?"
She hurried to the window and looked out.
"Sakes alive!" she gasped.
She was silent for a moment, awed in her turn by the immensity of the
prospect.
"Why--but--it's all water underneath!" she exclaimed at last. "Ef we was
to fall now, we'd be drowned!"
"Now don't you be a mite skeert," said Droop, with reassuring
politeness. "We've ben scootin' along like this all night an'--an' the
fact is, I've got the kettle on--p'raps it's b'iled over."
Rebecca turned from the window at once and made for the kitchen.
"Phoebe," she said, briskly, "you set the table now an' I'll hev
breakfast ready in a twinklin'."
Reluctantly Phoebe left the window and Droop soon had the satisfaction
of sauntering back and forth between kitchen and dining-table in pleased
supervision of the progress of both.
In due time a simple but substantial breakfast was in readiness, and
the three travellers were seated around the table partaking of the meal
each in his own way.
Droop was business-like, almost enthusiastic, in his voracious hunger.
Rebecca ate moderately and without haste, precisely as though seated in
the little Peltonville cottage. Phoebe ate but little. She was
overcome by the wonders she had seen, realizing for the first time the
marvellous situation in which she found herself.
It was not until the table was cleared and the two women were busy with
the dishes that conversation was resumed. Droop sat with his chair
tilted backward against the kitchen wall enjoying a quiet satisfaction
with his lot and a kindly mental attitude toward all men.
He glanced through the kitchen door at the barometer on the wall in the
outer room.
"We've climbed near a mile since before breakfast," he remarked.
Rebecca paused before hanging up the soap-shaker.
"Look here, Mr. Droop," she said, anxiously, "we are mos' too high
a'ready, I think. S'posin' we was to fall down. Where do you s'pose we'd
be?"
"Why, Rebecca," said Phoebe, laughing, "do you suppose five miles is
any worse than four? I guess we'd be killed by falling one mile jest as
quick as five."
"Quicker!" Droop exclaimed. "Considerable quicker, Cousin Rebecca, fer
it would take us a good deal longer to fall five miles than it would
one."
"But what ever's the use o' keepin' on a-climbin'?"
"Why, that's the nature of this machine," he replied. "Ye see, it runs
on the rocket principle by spurtin' out gases. Ef we want to go up off
the ground we squirt out under the machine an' that gives us a h'ist.
Then, when we get 'way up high, we spread out a pair o' big wings like
and start the propeller at the stern end o' the thing. Now them wings
on'y holds us up by bein' inclined a mite in front, and consequence is
we're mighty apt to climb a little right 'long."
"Well, but won't we get too high?" suggested Phoebe. "Ain't the air
too thin up very high?"
"Of course, we mustn't go too high," Droop conceded, "an' I was just
a-thinkin' it wouldn't go amiss to let down a spell."
He rose and started for the engine-room.
"How do you let down?" Phoebe asked, pausing in her work.
"Why, I jest turn the wings horizontal, ye know, an' then we sink very
slow till I incline 'em up again."
He disappeared. Phoebe gave the last of the dishes a brief touch of
the dish-towel and then ran into the main room to watch the barometer.
She was much interested to observe a gradual but continual decrease in
their altitude. She walked to the window but could see no apparent
change, save that they had now passed the sea and only the blue land
with silver streaks of river and indigo hill shadows was beneath them.
"How fast do you s'pose we're flyin', Mr. Droop?" she asked.
"There's the speed indicator," he said, pointing to one of the dials on
the wall. "Ye see it says we're a-hummin' along at about one hundred an'
thirty miles an hour."
"My gracious!" cried Phoebe. "What if we was to hit something!"
"Nothin' to hit," said Droop, with a smile. "Ye see, the's no sort o'
use goin' any slower, an' besides, this quick travellin' keeps us warm."
"Why, how's that?"
"The sides o' the machine rubbin' on the air," said Droop.
"That's so," Phoebe replied. "That's what heats up meteors so awful
hot, ain't it?"
Rebecca came out of the kitchen at this moment.
"I must say ye wasn't particler about gettin' all the pans to rights
'fore ye left the kitchen, Phoebe. Ben makin' the beds?"
"Land, no, Rebecca!" said Phoebe, blushing guiltily.
"Well, there!"
Rebecca said no more, but her set lips and puckered forehead spoke much
of displeasure as she stalked across to the state-rooms.
"Well, I declare to goodness!" she cried, as she opened her door. "Ye
hevn't even opened the window to air the rooms!"
Phoebe looked quite miserable at thought of her remissness, but
Copernicus came bravely to the rescue.
"The windows can't be opened, Cousin Rebecca," he said. "Ef ye was to
open one, 'twould blow yer head's bald as an egg in a minute."
"What!"
"Yes," said Phoebe, briskly, "I couldn't air the beds an' make 'em
because we're going one hundred and thirty odd miles an hour, Rebecca."
"D'you mean to tell me, Copernicus Droop," cried the outraged spinster,
"that I've got to go 'thout airin' my bed?"
"No, no," Copernicus said, soothingly. "The's special arrangements to
keep ventilation goin'. Jest leave the bed open half the day an' it'll
be all aired."
Rebecca looked far from pleased at this.
"I declare, ef I'd known of all these doin's," she muttered.
Unable to remain idle, she set to work "putting things to rights," as
she called it, while Phoebe took her book to the west window and was
soon lost in certain modern theories concerning the Baconian authorship
of Shakespeare's works.
"Is these duds yourn, Mr. Droop?" asked Rebecca, sharply, pointing to a
motley collection of goods piled in one corner of the main room.
"Yes," Droop replied, coming quickly to her side. "Them's some of the
inventions I'm carryin' along."
He stooped and gathered up a number of boxes and bundles in his arms.
Then he stood up and looked about him as though seeking a safe place for
their deposit.
"That's all right," said Rebecca. "Ye can put 'em right back, Mr. Droop.
I jest wanted to see whether the' was much dust back in there."
Droop replaced his goods with a sigh of relief. One box he retained,
however, and, placing it upon the table, proceeded to unpack it.
Rebecca now turned her attention to her own belongings. Lifting one of
her precious flower-pots carefully, she looked all about for a more
suitable location for her plants.
"Phoebe," she exclaimed at length, "where ever can I set my slips?
They ought to be in the sun there by the east window, but it'll dirt up
the coverin' of the settle."
Phoebe looked up from her book.
"Why don't ye spread out that newspaper you brought with you?" she said.
Rebecca shook her head.
"No," she replied, "I couldn't do thet. The's a lot o' fine recipes in
there--I never could make my sweet pickle as good as thet recipe in the
New York paper thet Molly sent me."
Phoebe laid down her book and walked over to her sister's side.
"Oh, the' must be some part of it you can use, Rebecca," she said. "Land
sakes!" she continued, laughing. "Why, it's the whole of the New York
World for a Sunday--pictures an' all! Here--take this advertisin' piece
an' spread it out--so."
She tore off a portion of the voluminous paper and carefully spread it
out on one of the eastern settles.
"Whatever did you bring those slips with you for?" she asked.
Rebecca deposited the flower-pots carefully in the sun and slapped her
hands across each other to remove the dust on them.
"One o' them is off my best honeysuckle thet come from a slip thet Sam
Mellick brought from Japan in 1894. This geranium come off a plant thet
was given me by Arabella Slade, 'fore she died in 1896, an' she cut it
off'n a geranium thet come from a lot thet Joe Chandler's father raised
from slips cut off of some plants down to Boston in the ground that used
to belong to our great-grandfather Wilkins 'fore the Revolution."
This train of reasoning seemed satisfactory, and Phoebe turned to
resume her book.
Copernicus intercepted her as she passed the table.
"What d'ye think o' this little phonograph, Cousin Phoebe?" he said.
One of Droop's boxes stood open and beside it Phoebe saw a phonograph
with the usual spring motor and brass megaphone.
"I paid twenty-five fer that, secon' hand, down to Keene," said the
proud owner.
"There!" exclaimed Phoebe. "I've always wanted to know how those
things worked. I've heard 'em, you know, but I've never worked one."
"It's real easy," said Droop, quite delighted to find Phoebe so
interested. "Ye see, when it's wound up, all ye hev to do is to slip one
o' these wax cylinders on here--so."
He adjusted the cylinder, dropped the stylus and pushed the starting
lever.
Instantly the stentorian announcement rang out from the megaphone.
"The Last Rose of Summer--Sola--Sung by Signora Casta Diva--Edison
Record!"
"Goodness gracious sakes alive!" cried Rebecca, turning in affright.
"Who's that?"
Her two companions raised their right hands in a simultaneous appeal for
silence. Then the song began.
With open eyes and mouth, the amazed Rebecca drew slowly nearer, and
finally took her stand directly in front of the megaphone.
The song ended and Copernicus stopped the motor.
"Oh, ain't it lovely!" Phoebe cried.
"Well--I'll--be--switched!" Rebecca exclaimed, with slow emphasis. "Can
it sing anythin' else?"
"Didn't you never hear one afore, Cousin Rebecca?" Droop asked.
"I never did," she replied. "What on the face of the green airth does
it?"
"Have ye any funny ones?" Phoebe asked, quickly, fearful of receiving
a long scientific lecture.
"Yes," said Droop. "Here's a nigger minstrels. The's some jokes in it."
The loud preliminary announcement made Rebecca jump again, but while the
music and the songs and jokes were delivered, she stood earnestly
attentive throughout, while her companions grinned and giggled
alternately.
"Is thet all?" she asked at the conclusion.
"Thet's all," said Droop, as he removed the cylinder.
"Well, I don't see nothin' funny 'bout it," she said, plaintively.
Droop's pride was touched.
"Ah, but that ain't all it can do!" he cried. "Here's a blank cylinder.
You jest talk at the machine while it's runnin', an' it'll talk back all
you say."
This was too much for Rebecca's credulity, and Droop could not induce
her to talk into the trumpet.
"You can't make a fool o' me, Copernicus Droop," she exclaimed.
"You try, Cousin Phoebe," he said at last.
Phoebe looked dubiously at her sister as though half of opinion that
her shrewd example should be followed.
"You sure it'll do it?" she asked.
"Certain!" cried Copernicus, nodding his head with violence.
She stood a moment leaning over with her pretty lips close to the
trumpet.
Then she straightened up with a face of comical despair.
"I don't know what to say," she exclaimed.
Droop stopped the motor and looked about the room. Suddenly his eyes
brightened.
"There," he cried, pointing to the book Phoebe had been reading, "read
suthin' out o' that into it."
Phoebe opened the book at random, and as Droop started the motor again
she read the following lines slowly and distinctly into the trumpet:
"It is thus made clear from the indubitable evidence of the plays
themselves that Francis Bacon wrote the immortal works falsely ascribed
to William Shakespeare, and that the gigantic genius of this man was the
result of the possession of royal blood. In this unacknowledged son of
Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England, was made manifest to all countries
and for all centuries the glorious powers inherent in the regal blood of
England."
"That'll do," said Droop. "Now jest hear it talk back."
He substituted the repeating stylus for the recording point and set the
motor in motion once more. To the complete stupefaction of Rebecca, the
repetition of Phoebe's words was perfect.
"Why! It's Phoebe's voice," she began, but Phoebe broke in upon her
suddenly.
"Why, see the hills on each side of us, Mr. Droop," she cried.
Droop glanced out and leaped a foot from the ground.
"Goramighty!" he screamed, "she'll strike!" He dashed to the engine-room
and threw up the forward edges of the aeroplanes. Instantly the vessel
swooped upward and the hills Phoebe had seen appeared to drop into
some great abyss.
The two women ran to a window and saw that they were over a bleak and
rocky island covered with ice and snow.
Droop came to their side, quite pale with fright.
"Great Moses!" he exclaimed. "I warn't more'n jest in time, I tell ye!
We was a-settlin' fast. A little more'n we'd ha' struck--" He snapped
the fingers of both hands and made a gesture expressive of the complete
destruction which would have resulted.
"I tell you what, Mr. Droop," said Rebecca, sternly, but with a little
shake in her voice, "you've got to jest tend to business and navigate
this thing we're a-ridin' on. You can't work and play too. Don't you say
anythin' more to Phoebe or me till we get to the pole. What time'll
that be?"
"About six or half-past, I expect," said Droop, humbly. "But I don't see
how I can be workin' all the time. The machine don't need it, an',
besides, I've got to eat, haven't I?"
"When it comes time fer your victuals, Phoebe'll watch the windows
an' the little clocks on the wall while I feed ye. But don't open yer
head agin now, only fer necessary talkin' an' eatin', till we get there.
I don't want any smash-ups 'round here."
Copernicus found it expedient to obey these instructions, and under
Rebecca's watchful generalship he was obliged to pace back and forth
from engine-room to window while Phoebe read and her sister knitted.
So passed the remainder of the day, save when at dinner-time the
famished man was relieved by his young lieutenant.
Immediately after supper, however, they all three posted themselves at
the windows, on the lookout for the North Pole. Droop slowed down the
propeller, and the aeroplanes being thus rendered less effective they
slowly descended.
They were passing over an endless plain of rough and ragged ice. In
every direction all the way to the horizon nothing could be seen but the
glare of white.
"How'll you know when we get there?" asked Phoebe.
Droop glanced apprehensively at Rebecca and replied in a whisper:
"We'll see the pole a-stickin' up. We can't go wrong, you know. The
Panchronicon is fixed to guide itself allus due north."
"You don't need to whisper--speak right up, Mr. Droop," said Rebecca,
sharply.
Copernicus started, looked nervously about and then stared out of the
window northward with a very business-like frown.
"Is the' really an' truly a pole there?" Phoebe asked.
"Yes," said Droop, shortly.
"An' can ye see the meridians jammed together like in the geographies?"
asked Rebecca.
"No," said Droop, "no, indeed--at least, I didn't see any."
"Why, Rebecca," said Phoebe, "the meridians are only conventional
signs, you know. They don't----"
"Hallo!" Droop cried, suddenly, "what's that?" He raised a spyglass with
which he had hitherto been playing and directed it northward for a few
seconds. Then he turned with a look of relief on his face.
"It's the pole!" he exclaimed.
Phoebe snatched the spyglass and applied it to her eye.
Yes, on the horizon she could discern a thin black line, rising
vertically from the plain of ice. Even as she looked it seemed to be
nearer, so rapid was their progress.
Droop went to the engine-room, lessened speed and brought the aeroplanes
to the horizontal. He could look directly forward through a thick glass
port directly over the starting-handle. Gradually the great machine
settled lower and lower. It was now running quite slowly and the
aeroplanes acted only as parachutes as they glided still forward toward
the black upright line.
In silence the three waited for the approaching end of this first stage
of their journey. A few hundred yards south of their goal they seemed
about to alight, but Droop slightly inclined the aeroplanes and speeded
up the propeller a little. Their vessel swept gently upward and
northward again, like a gull rising from the sea. Then Droop let it
settle again. Just as they were about to fall rather violently upon the
solid mass of ice below them, he projected a relatively small volume of
gas from beneath the structure. Its reaction eased their descent, and
they settled down without noise or shock.
They had arrived!
Copernicus came forward to the window and pointed to a tall, stout steel
pole projecting from the ice a few yards to the right of the vessel.
"Thet, neighbors, is the North Pole!" he said, with a sweeping wave of
the hand.
For some minutes the three voyagers stood in silence gazing through the
window at the famous pole. This, then, was the goal of so much heroic
endeavor! It was to reach this complete opposite of all that is
ordinarily attractive that countless ambitious men had suffered--that so
many had died!
"Well!" exclaimed Rebecca at length. "I be switched ef I see what there
is fer so many folks to make sech a fuss about!"
Droop scratched his head thoughtfully and made no reply. Surely it would
have been hard to point out any charms in the endless plain of opaque
ice hummocks, unrelieved save by that gaunt steel pole.
"Where's the open sea?" Rebecca asked, after a few moments' pause. "Dr.
Kane said the' was an open sea up here."
"Oh, Dr. Kane!" said Droop, contemptuously. "He's no 'count fer modern
facts."
"What I can't understand," said Phoebe, "is how it comes that, if
nobody's ever been up here, they all seem to know there's a North Pole
here."
"That's a fact," Rebecca exclaimed. "How'd they know about it? The'
ain't anythin' in the Bible 'bout it, is the'?"
Droop looked more cheerful at this and answered briskly:
"Oh, they don't know 'bout it. Ye see, that pole there ain't a nat'ral
product of the soil at all. Et's the future man done that--the man who
invented this Panchronicon and brought me up here before. He told me how
that he stuck that post in there to help him run this machine 'round and
'round fer cuttin' meridians."
"Oh!" exclaimed both sisters together.
"Yes," Droop continued. "D'ye see thet big iron ring 'round the pole,
lyin' on the ground?"
"I don't see any ground," said Rebecca, ruefully.
"Well, on the ice, then. Don't ye see it lyin' black there against the
snow?"
"Yes--yes, I see it," said Phoebe.
"Well, that's what I'm goin' to hitch the holdin' rope on to. You'll see
how it's done presently."
He glanced at the clock.
"Seven o'clock," he said. "I guessed mighty close when I said 'twould
take us twenty hours. We left Peltonville at ten-thirty last night."
"Seven o'clock!" cried Rebecca. "So 'tis. Why, what's the matter with
the sun. Ain't it goin' to set at all?"
"Not much!" said Droop, chuckling. "Sun don't set up here, Cousin
Rebecca. Not until winter-time, an' then et stays set till summer
again."
"Well!" was the breathless reply. "An' where in creation does it go when
it stays set?"
"Why, Rebecca," exclaimed Phoebe, "the sun is south of the equator in
winter, you know."
"Shinin' on the South Pole then," Droop added, nodding.
For a moment Rebecca looked from one to the other of her companions, and
then, realizing the necessity of keeping her mind within its accustomed
sphere, she changed the subject.
"Come now--the' ain't any wind to blow us away now, I hope. Let's open
our windows an' air out those state-rooms."
She started toward her door.
"Hold on!" cried Droop, extending his arm to stop her. "You don't want
to fall down dead o' cold, do ye?"
"What!"
"Don't you know what a North Pole is like fer weather an' sich?" Droop
continued. "Why, Cousin Rebecca, it's mos' any 'mount below zero
outside. Don't you open a window--not a tiny crack--if ye don't want to
freeze solid in a second."
"There!" Rebecca exclaimed. "You do provoke me beyond anythin',
Copernicus Droop! Ef I'd a-knowed the kind o' way we'd had to live--why,
there! It's wuss'n pigs!"
She marched indignantly into her room and closed the door. A moment
later she put out her head.
"Phoebe Wise," she said, "if you take my advice, you'll make your bed
an' tidy yer room at once. Ain't any use waitin' any longer fer a chance
to air."
Phoebe smiled and moved toward her own door.
"Thet's a good idea," said Droop. "You fix yer rooms an' I'll do some
figurin'. Ye see I've got to figure out how long it'll take us to get
back six years. I've a notion it'll take about eighteen hours, but I
ain't certain sure."
Poor Rebecca set to work in her rooms with far from enviable feelings.
Her curiosity had been largely satisfied and the unwonted conditions
were proving very trying indeed. Could she have set out with the
prospect of returning to those magical days of youth and courtship, as
Droop had originally proposed, the end would have justified the means.
But they could not do this now if they would, for Phoebe had left her
baby clothes behind. Thus her disappointment added to her burdens, and
she found herself wishing that she had never left her comfortable home,
however amazing had been her adventures.
"I could'v aired my bed at least," she muttered, as she turned the
mattress of her couch in the solitude of her chamber.
She found the long-accustomed details of chamber work a comfort and
solace, and, as she finally gazed about the tidy room at her completed
work, she felt far more contented with her lot than she had felt before
beginning.
"I guess I'll go help Phoebe," she thought. "The girl is that slow!"
As she came from her room she found Copernicus leaning over the table,
one hand buried in his hair and the other wielding a pencil. He was
absorbed in arithmetical calculations.
She did not disturb him, but turned and entered Phoebe's room without
the formality of knocking. As she opened the door, there was a sharp
clatter, as of a door or lid slamming.
"Who's there?" cried Phoebe, sharply.
She was seated on the floor in front of her trunk, and she looked up at
her sister with a flushed and startled face.
"Oh, it's you!" she said, guiltily.
Rebecca glanced at the bed.
It had not been touched.
"Well, I declare!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Ain't you ever agoin' to fix up
your room, Phoebe Wise?"
"Oh, in a minute, Rebecca. I was just agoin' over my trunk a minute."
She leaned back against the foot of the bed, and folding her hands gazed
pensively into vacancy, while Rebecca stared at her in astonishment.
"Do you know," Phoebe went on, "I've ben thinkin' it's awful mean not
to give you a chance to go back to 1876, Rebecca. Joe Chandler's a
mighty fine man!"
Rebecca gave vent to an unintelligible murmur and turned to Phoebe's
bed. She grasped the mattress and gave it a vicious shake as she turned
it over. She was probably only transferring to this inoffensive article
a process which she would gladly have applied elsewhere.
There was a long silence while Rebecca resentfully drew the sheets into
proper position, smoothed them with swift pats and caressings, and
tucked them neatly under at head and sides. Then came a soft, apologetic
voice.
"Rebecca!"
The spinster made no reply but applied herself to a mathematically
accurate adjustment of the top edge of the upper sheet.
"Rebecca!"
The second call was a little louder than the first, and there was a
queer half-sobbing, half-laughing catch in the speaker's voice that
commanded attention.
Rebecca looked up.
Phoebe was still sitting on the floor beside her trunk, but the trunk
was open now and the young woman's rosy face was peering with a
pathetic smile over a--what!--could it be!
Rebecca leaned forward in amazement.
Yes, it was! In Phoebe's outstretched hands was the dearest possible
little baby's undergarment--all of cambric, with narrow ribbons at the
neck.
For a few seconds the two sisters looked at each other over this
unexpected barrier. Then Phoebe's lips quivered into a pathetic curve
and she buried her face in the little garment, laughing and crying at
once.
Rebecca dropped helplessly into a chair.
"Phoebe Martin Wise!" she exclaimed. "Do you mean--hev you
brought----?"
She fell silent, and then, darting at her sister, she took her head in
her hands and deposited a sudden kiss on the smooth bright gold-brown
hair and whisked out of Phoebe's room and into her own.
In the meantime Copernicus was too deeply absorbed in his calculations
to notice these comings and goings. Apparently he had been led into the
most abstruse mathematical regions. Nothing short of the triple
integration of transcendental functions should have been adequate to
produce those lines of anxious care in his face as he slowly covered
sheet after sheet with figures.
He was at length startled from his preoccupation by a gentle voice at
his side.
"Can't I help, Mr. Droop?"
It was Phoebe, who, having made all right in her room and washed all
traces of tears from her face, had come to note Droop's progress.
Dazed, he raised his head and looked unexpectedly into a lovely face
made the more attractive by an expression only given by a sense of duty
unselfishly done.
"I--I wish'd you'd call me Cousin Copernicus," he said for the fifth
time.
She picked up one of the sheets on which he had been scribbling as
though she had not heard him, and said:
"Why, dear me! How comes it you have so much figurin' to do?"
"Well," he began, in a querulous tone, "it beats all creation how many
things a feller has to work out at once! Ye see, I've got a rope forty
foot long that's got to tie the Panchronicon to the North Pole while we
swing 'round to cut meridians. Now, then, the question is, How many
times an hour shall we swing 'round to get to 1892, an' how long's it
goin' to take an' how fast must I make the old thing hum along?"
"But you said eighteen hours by the clock would do it."
"Well, I jest guessed at that by the time the future man an' I took to
go back five weeks, ye know. But I can't seem to figur it out right."
Phoebe seated herself at the table and took up a blank sheet of paper.
"Please lend me your pencil," she said. "Now, then, every time you
whirl once 'round the pole to westward you lose one day, don't you?"
"That's it," said Droop, cheerfully. "Cuttin' twenty-four meridians----"
"And how many days in twenty-two years?" Phoebe broke in.
"You mean in six years."
"Why, no," she replied, glancing at Droop with a mischievous smile,
"it's twenty-two years back to 1876, ain't it?"
"To '76--why, but----"
He caught sight of her face and stopped short.
There came a pleased voice from one of the state-rooms.
"Yes, we've decided to go all the way back, Mr. Droop."
It was Rebecca.
She came forward and stood beside her sister, placing one hand
affectionately upon her shoulder.
Droop leaned back in his chair with both hands on the edge of the table.
"Goin' all the way! Why, but then----"
He leaped to his feet with a radiant face.
"Great Jumpin' Jerusha!" he cried.
Slapping his thigh he began to pace excitedly up and down.
"Why, then, we'll get all the big inventions out--kodak an' phonograph
and all. We'll marry Joe Chandler an' set things agoin' in two shakes
fer millions."
"Eight thousand and thirty-five," said Phoebe in a quiet voice,
putting her pencil to her lips. "We'll have to whirl round the pole
eight thousand and thirty-five times."
"Whose goin' to keep count?" asked Rebecca, cheerfully. Ah, how
different it all seemed now! Every dry detail was of interest.
Phoebe looked up at Droop, who now resumed his seat, somewhat sobered.
"Don't have to keep count," he replied. "See that indicator?" he
continued, pointing to a dial in the ceiling which had not been noticed
before. "That reads May 3, 1898, now, don't it? Well, it's fixed to keep
always tellin' the right date. It counts the whirls we make an' keeps
tabs on every day we go backward. Any time all ye hev to do is to read
that thing an' it'll tell ye jest what day 'tis."
"Then what do you want to calculate how often to whirl round?" asked
Phoebe, in disgusted tones.
"Well, ye see I want to plan out how long it'll take," Droop replied. "I
want to go slow so as to avoid side weight--but I don't want to go too
slow."
"I see," said Phoebe. "Well, then, how many times a minute did the
future man take you when you whirled back five weeks?"
"'Bout two times a minute."
"That's one hundred and twenty times every hour. Did you feel much side
weight then?"
"Scarcely any."
"Well, let's see. Divide eight thousand and thirty-five whirls by one
hundred and twenty, an' you get sixty-seven hours. So that, ef we go at
that rate it'll be two days and nineteen hours 'fore we get back to
1876."
"Don't talk about days," Droop objected. "It's sixty-seven hours by the
clock--but it's twenty-two years less than no time in days, ye know."
"Sixty-seven hours," said Phoebe. "Well, that ain't so bad, is it? Why
not go round twice a minute?"
"We can't air our beds fer three days, Phoebe," said Rebecca.
"But if we go much faster, we'll all be sick with this side weight
trouble that Mr. Droop tells about."
"I vote fer twice a minute," said Droop. And so twice a minute was
adopted.
"Air ye goin' to start to-night, Mr. Droop?" asked Rebecca.
"Well, no," he replied. "I think it's best to wait till to-morrow. Ye
see, the power that runs the Panchronicon is got out o' the sunlight
that falls on it. Of course, we're not all run out o' power by a good
lot, but we've used considerable, an' I think it's a little mite safer
to lie still fer a few hours here an' take in power from the sun. Ye
see, it'll shine steady on us all night, an' we'll store up enough power
to be sure o' reachin' 1876 in one clip."
"Well," said Rebecca, "ef thet's the plan, I'm goin' to bed right now.
It's after eight o'clock, an' I didn't get to sleep las' night till
goodness knows when. Good-night! Hedn't you better go, too, Phoebe?"
"I guess I will," said Phoebe, turning to Copernicus. "Good-night, Mr.
Droop."
"Good-night, Cousin Phoebe--good-night, Cousin Rebecca. I'll go to bed
myself, I b'lieve."
The two doors were closed and Droop proceeded to draw the steel shutters
in order to produce artificially the gloom not vouchsafed by a
too-persistent sun.
In half an hour all were asleep within the now motionless conveyance.
More
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Of The Universal Colour Bill
But meanwhile the intellectual Arts were fast decaying. The Art of Sight Recognition, being no longer needed, was no longer practised; and the studies of Geometry, Statics, Kinetics, and other kindred subjects, came soon to be considered superfl... Oro And Arbuthnot Travel By Night
As time went on, Oro began to visit me more and more frequently, till at last scarcely a night went by that he did not appear mysteriously in my sleeping-place. The odd thing was that neither Bickley nor Bastin seemed to be aware of these nocturna... Oro In His House
We climbed on to the dais by some marble steps, and sat ourselves down in four curious chairs of metal that were more or less copied from that which served Oro as a throne; at least the arms ended in graven heads of snakes. These chairs were so co... Oro Speaks And Bastin Argues
The reader of what I have written, should there ever be such a person, may find the record marvelous, and therefore rashly conclude that because it is beyond experience, it could not be. It is not a wise deduction, as I think Bickley would admit t... Resurrection
We reached the sepulchre without stopping to look at the parked machines or even the marvelous statue that stood above it, for what did we care about machines or statues now? As we approached we were astonished to hear low and cavernous growlings.... Sacrifice
"The air in this place must be charged with some form of electricity, but the odd thing is that it does not seem to harm us," said Bickley in a matter-of-fact fashion as though he were determined not to be astonished. "To me it looks more like ... Shannon's Reaction
Shannon had decided to take advantage of Cortin's skill during the afternoon session. It had been some time since he'd combined his two preferences purely for pleasure instead of as an "object lesson"--since Piety, in fact--and he was overdue f... Shayan
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I think that both Bastin and Bickley, by instinct as it were, knew what had passed between Yva and myself and that she had promised herself to me. They showed this by the way in which they avoided any mention of her name. Also they began to talk o... The Cyclone
We enjoyed our voyage exceedingly. In Egypt, a land I was glad to revisit, we only stopped a week while the Star of the South, which we rejoined at Suez, coaled and went through the Canal. This, however, gave us time to spend a few days in Cairo, ... The Dwellers In The Tomb
By now it was drawing towards sunset, so we made such preparations as we could for the night. One of these was to collect dry driftwood, of which an abundance lay upon the shore, to serve us for firing, though unfortunately we had nothing that we ... The Island In The Lake
We made the canoe fast and landed on the great rock, to perceive that it was really a peninsula. That is to say, it was joined to the main land of the lake island by a broad roadway quite fifty yards across, which appeared to end in the mouth of t... The Orofenans
To our shame we had a very pleasant supper that night off the grilled fish, which was excellent, and some tinned meat. I say to our shame, in a sense, for on our companions the sharks were supping and by rights we should have been sunk in woe. I s... The Proposals Of Bastin And Bickley
So far as my body was concerned I grew well with great rapidity, though it was long before I got back my strength. Thus I could not walk far or endure any sustained exertion. With my mind it was otherwise. I can not explain what had happened to it... The Under-world
That night we slept well and without fear, being quite certain that after their previous experience the Orofenans would make no further attempts upon us. Indeed our only anxiety was for Tommy, whom we could not find when the time came to give him ... Tommy
I lay still a while, on my back as I had fallen, and beneath the shield-like defence which Yva had given to me. Notwithstanding the fire-resisting, metalised stuff of which it was made, I noted that it was twisted and almost burnt through. Doubtle... Torture Cortin's Point Of View
Cortin was conducting the first part of her preliminary examination when Odeon interrupted. "Someone in the observation room, Excellency." She turned that way. "Colonel Bradford?" "Yes," Bradford replied over the intercom, "with Ranger M... Torture Odeon's Point Of View
Maybe an hour after Cortin began her preliminary examination, Odeon glanced toward the observation room, raised a hand in acknowledgement when he saw the light on above the window, and spoke softly to Cortin. "Someone in the observation room, Ex... Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Years!
"You seem to have made the best of your time, old fellow," said Bickley in rather a sour voice. "I never knew people begin to call each other by their Christian names so soon," added Bastin, looking at me with a suspicious eye. "I know no oth... Visions Of The Past
She led us to the back of the statue and pointed to each of us where we should remain. Then she took her place at right angles to us, as a showman might do, and for a while stood immovable. Watching her face, once more I saw it, and indeed all her... Waiting
Thursday, 26 March 2572 (Morning, New Rome) Shayan smiled as he read the New Roman Times while eating breakfast. Sara had done excellently; these stories gave him all the details he needed to take action. The Strike Forces, the Sealing, Cort... Yva Explains
When I reached the rock I was pleased to find Marama and about twenty of his people engaged in erecting the house that we had ordered them to build for our accommodation. Indeed, it was nearly finished, since house-building in Orofena is a simple ... -and Epilogue
"Hold it!" The voice bellowed thunderingly from the loud-speakers of the six Earth ships that had boxed in the derelict. "Hold it! Don't bomb that ship! I'll personally have the head of any man who damages that ship!" In five of the ships, the co... 40000000 Years After
Entering within the boundaries of the solar system, a long, dark, pointed craft sped across the realms of space towards the tiny point of light which marked the dull red ball of the dying sun which would some day lie cold and dark forever. Like a ... 999 Priscilla
As the cutter touched the bank the entire party from the long-house, whites and natives, were gathered on the shore to meet it. At first the officers held off as though fearing a hostile demonstration, but when they saw the whites among the thron... A Barren Land
We had started under a sky overcast but calm. There was no fear of heat, none of disastrous rain. It was just the weather for tourists. The pleasure of riding on horseback over an unknown country made me easy to be pleased at our first start. I th... A Bird's Eye View Of The Lunar Mountains
I am rather inclined to believe myself that not one word of Ardan's rhapsody had been ever heard by Barbican or M'Nicholl. Long before he had spoken his last words, they had once more become mute as statues, and now were both eagerly watching, pen... A Bold Proposition
On his return Servadac communicated to the count the result of his expedition, and, though perfectly silent on the subject of his personal project, did not conceal the fact that the Spaniards, without the smallest right, had sold Ceuta to the Engl... A Break For Liberty
Xodar listened in incredulous astonishment to my narration of the events which had transpired within the arena at the rites of Issus. He could scarce conceive, even though he had already professed his doubt as to the deity of Issus, that one coul... A Carrier-pigeon
When, three hours after sunset, on the 23d of March, the Gallian moon rose upon the western horizon, it was observed that she had entered upon her last quarter. She had taken only four days to pass from syzygy to quadrature, and it was consequentl... A Catastrophe
SCARCELY six weeks passed before I had lost every feeling but dislike and abhorrence for this infamous experiment of Moreau's. My one idea was to get away from these horrible caricatures of my Maker's image, back to the sweet and wholesome interco... A Challenge
"Nothing, sir, can induce me to surrender my claim." "I am sorry, count, but in such a matter your views cannot modify mine." "But allow me to point out that my seniority unquestionably gives me a prior right." "Mere seniority, I assert, in... A Chance Strain From Grieg
I recalled waking up in another place, on a long slope of green hill that overlooked a valley. It was dawn again. The sun was just rising over the crest of the hill behind me, and it threw long shadows across the grass from the tall, slender trees... A Change Of Masters
WE MUST HAVE TRAVELED SEVERAL MILES THROUGH the dark and dismal wood when we came suddenly upon a dense village built high among the branches of the trees. As we approached it my escort broke into wild shouting which was immediately answered from... A Change Of Plan
It was long after their bed-time and the two sisters were utterly exhausted; but as the mysterious structure within which they lay glided northward between heaven and earth with the speed of a meteor, Rebecca and Phoebe long courted sleep in vain.... A Change Of Scene
The Ithuriel had orders to call at Folkestone and Dover in order to report the actual state of affairs there to the Commander-in-Chief by telegraph if Erskine could get ashore or by flash-signal if he could not, and incidentally to do as much dama... A Chapter For The Cornell Girls
No incident worth recording occurred during the night, if night indeed it could be called. In reality there was now no night or even day in the Projectile, or rather, strictly speaking, it was always night on the upper end of the bullet, and alway... A Choice Of Miracles
You're down in the jungle with death staring you in the face. There is nothing left but prayer. So you ask for your life. But wait! Are you sure that's really what you want above all else? Andy Larson was a hard-headed Swede. He had to be, to be... A Convulsion Of Nature
Whence came it that at that very moment the horizon underwent so strange and sudden a modification, that the eye of the most practiced mariner could not distinguish between sea and sky? Whence came it that the billows raged and rose to a height ... A Costly Recapture
As the speaker ceased he turned to leave the apartment by the door where I was standing, but I needed to wait no longer; I had heard enough to fill my soul with dread, and stealing quietly away I returned to the courtyard by the way I had come. M... A Crime And A Mistake
When the destruction of the forts and the sinking of the battleships at Portsmouth had been accomplished, John Castellan made about the greatest mistake in his life, a mistake which had very serious consequences for those to whom he had sold himse... A Desperate Deed
E-Med crossed the tower chamber toward Tara of Helium and the slave girl, Lan-O. He seized the former roughly by a shoulder. "Stand!" he commanded. Tara struck his hand from her and rising, backed away. "Lay not your hand upon the person of a pri... A Dream Of Armageddon
The man with the white face entered the carriage at Rugby. He moved slowly in spite of the urgency of his porter, and even while he was still on the platform I noted how ill he seemed. He dropped into the corner over against me with a sigh, made a... A Duel To The Death
My first impulse was to tell her of my love, and then I thought of the helplessness of her position wherein I alone could lighten the burdens of her captivity, and protect her in my poor way against the thousands of hereditary enemies she must fac... A Fair Captive From The Sky
The third day after the incubator ceremony we set forth toward home, but scarcely had the head of the procession debouched into the open ground before the city than orders were given for an immediate and hasty return. As though trained for years ... A Fair Goddess
For an instant the black pirate and I remained motionless, glaring into each other's eyes. Then a grim smile curled the handsome lips above me, as an ebony hand came slowly in sight from above the edge of the deck and the cold, hollow eye of a re... A Farewell Banquet And A Painful Parting
The time was nigh at hand when we must think about our arrangements for returning to the earth, and, as it drew nearer and nearer, I became much troubled. I felt that it would be endangering Merna's dear life to take him to England, for our t... A Fete Day
The temperature continued to decrease; the mercurial thermometer, which freezes at 42 degrees below zero, was no longer of service, and the spirit thermometer of the Dobryna had been brought into use. This now registered 53 degrees below freezing-... A Few Days On Land
I was much impressed on touching land. Ned Land tried the soil with his feet, as if to take possession of it. However, it was only two months before that we had become, according to Captain Nemo, "passengers on board the Nautilus," but, in reality... A Fight That Won Friends
The thing, which more nearly resembled our earthly men than it did the Martians I had seen, held me pinioned to the ground with one huge foot, while it jabbered and gesticulated at some answering creature behind me. This other, which was evidentl... A Figure In The Shadow
AN hour after sundown I was seated with Omar and Kona on a mat in the courtyard of a house not far from the gates of the palace, where hospitality had been secretly offered us. We were discussing the situation. Our black followers, on leaving the ... A Final Threat
ON that day, in the colliery of New Aberfoyle, work was going on in the usual regular way. In the distance could be heard the crash of great charges of dynamite, by which the carboniferous rocks were blasted. Here masses of coal were loosened by p... A Fine Fix
Generally speaking, human beings are fine buck-passers--but there's one circumstance under which they refuse to pass on responsibility. If the other fellow says "Your method won't solve the problem!"--then they get mad! Th... A Forest Battle
Tars Tarkas and I found no time for an exchange of experiences as we stood there before the great boulder surrounded by the corpses of our grotesque assailants, for from all directions down the broad valley was streaming a perfect torrent of terri... A Friend In Need
Whilst the Russians were digging their cooking trenches somewhat aside from the main camp, and making all necessary arrangements for bivouacking, Heideck had an opportunity of admiring the magnificence with which these Indian Princes organised the... A Frozen Ocean
The moon! She had disappeared for weeks; was she now returning? Had she been faithless to the earth? and had she now approached to be a satellite of the new-born world? "Impossible!" said Lieutenant Procope; "the earth is millions and millions ... A Further Mystery
"Well," said Hilderman, as we caught them up, "what about lunch? After his journey I daresay Mr. Burnham has an appetite, not to mention his excursion into the realm of detective fiction." "We lunched at Mallaig," I explained, "with Mr. Garnesk ... A Glimpse Of The Doom
After dinner Lennard excused himself, saying that he wanted to make a few more calculations; and then he got outside and lit his pipe, and walked up the winding path towards the observatory. "What am I to do?" he said between his teeth. "It's a ... A Glimpse Of The Peril
The morning was spent in a general overhaul of the observatory and the laboratory in which Lennard had discovered and perfected the explosive which had been used with such deadly effect in the guns of the Ithuriel. Lunch was an entirely delightful... A Glossary Of Names And Terms Used In The Martian Books
Aaanthor. A dead city of ancient Mars. Aisle of Hope. An aisle leading to the court-room in Helium. Apt. An Arctic monster. A huge, white-furred creature with six limbs, four of which, short and heavy, carry it over the snow and... A Green Man's Captive
When the light of day broke upon the little craft to whose deck the Princess of Ptarth had been snatched from her father's garden, Thuvia saw that the night had wrought a change in her abductors. No longer did their trappings gleam with the meta... A Guide Found To The Centre Of The Earth
In the evening I took a short walk on the beach and returned at night to my plank-bed, where I slept soundly all night. When I awoke I heard my uncle talking at a great rate in the next room. I immediately dressed and joined him. He was convers... A Gunpowder Tea-party
Nothing could be completer nor daintier than the cabin and its furnishings, divisions, and subdivisions. The rooms of necessity were small, but sufficiently large for convenience and comfort. A choice selection of best authors had been added by th... A Happy Breakfast
Mrs. Forbes was on the porch next morning when Mr. Evringham returned from his canter. "Fine morning, Mrs. Forbes," he said, as he gave Essex Maid into Zeke's hands. "Very fine. A regular weather breeder. It'll most probably rain to-morrow, an... A Hecatomb
The way of describing this unlooked-for scene, the history of the patriot ship, told at first so coldly, and the emotion with which this strange man pronounced the last words, the name of the Avenger, the significance of which could not escape me, a... A Hero In Kaol
It was daylight when I was awakened by the sound of stealthy movement near by. As I opened my eyes Woola, too, moved and, coming up to his haunches, stared through the intervening brush toward the road, each hair upon his neck stiffly erect. ... A High Old Time
A new phenomenon, therefore, strange but logical, startling but admitting of easy explanation, was now presented to their view, affording a fresh subject for lively discussion. Not that they disputed much about it. They soon agreed on a principle ... A Journey And A Disappointment
It was as the professor had said. From the day that Isaac Hakkabut had entered upon his mercantile career, his dealings had all been carried on by a system of false weight. That deceitful steelyard had been the mainspring of his fortune. But when ... A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth
... A Light On The Horizon
On the following day, without giving himself any further concern about the Jew's incredulity, the captain gave orders for the Hansa to be shifted round to the harbor of the Shelif. Hakkabut raised no objection, not only because he was aware that t...