Читать книгу Don Sturdy Across the North Pole or Cast Away in the Land of Ice - J. W. Duffield - Страница 6

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Their hearts beating high, the boys looked, enthralled at the magnificent spectacle.

The great airship sailed on serenely, moving at terrific speed, and yet at such a height that it scarcely seemed to be more than floating.

“How fast do you think she’s going?” asked Teddy.

“Oh, about seventy miles an hour,” replied Don. “That’s about her regular speed. But when they want to let her out she can make a hundred or more.”

“Why, that’s faster than the lightning express!” exclaimed Teddy.

“A train isn’t in it compared to her,” replied Don. “She could run rings around the fastest express in the world. She could beat an eagle at his own game. She’s some traveler, if you ask me.”

“How far up do you think she is?” asked Teddy.

“I should guess about five thousand feet,” was the reply. “That would be higher than six Woolworth Buildings piled on top of one another.”

“Suppose she should fall?” remarked Teddy, in an awed voice.

“The crew would never know what hit them,” replied Don. “But they’ve got that thing down now to such a fine point that it’s hardly possible. You see, the gas is in different compartments, so that if a hole were made in one, the others would hold it up. It’s on the same principle as the watertight bulkheads in a ship.”

“Seems to me that I have heard of them falling, though,” said Teddy doubtfully. “Didn’t one of them go down in England? And didn’t another tumble in this country?”

“Yes,” said Don. “But that was before they knew as much about building them and running them as they do now. The one that went down in England buckled because there was a defect in the framework. They’ve corrected that. The one that fell in Virginia would have made a safe landing all right, but the metal nose came up against an electric light wire and set fire to the gas. But they’re using a different kind of gas now, helium, I think Uncle Frank called it, and that can’t get on fire. Then, too, if worst comes to worst, there are parachutes for all the members of the crew, and they can grab ’em and come down safely.”

“But suppose the ship gets caught in a hurricane,” persisted Teddy.

“That, of course, is a tougher matter,” returned Don. “But you know what happened to the Shenandoah. That was blown away from her moorings in a gale, but she got through it all right. They simply ran before it just as a ship goes scudding in a storm.”

“It sounds all right,” remarked Teddy. “All the same, it seems to me there’s a lot of risk about it.”

“So there is,” admitted Don. “But so there is about everything. Every time you go out on an automobile ride, you don’t know but what a drunken driver may run into you and smash you up. And, after all, if there wasn’t a little risk you wouldn’t get any kick out of it.”

“That’s so,” agreed Teddy, as he thought of the risks he and Don had taken in the Sahara Desert and in Egypt. “Gee! Your uncle is in for a whole lot of kicks when he flies to the North Pole.”

“You bet he is!” agreed Don. “And he’s tickled to death at the prospect. What wouldn’t I give to go along!”

“Same here,” said Teddy. “Perhaps you’ll get a chance yet. And if you do, put in a good word for me, won’t you?”

“Sure thing,” promised Don. “But I don’t think there’s a chance in the world. And, if there were, how do you know your father would let you go?”

“I’m afraid he wouldn’t,” sighed Teddy. “He says I’ve got to buckle down to my books. I’d tell him that I’d learn a mighty sight more from such a trip as that than I would from books, but I’m afraid he couldn’t see it.”

The chums watched the Red Monarch with fascinated eyes until the great dirigible disappeared below the horizon.

“Where is she going, do you suppose?” asked Teddy, as they resumed their walk.

“Over to Plainville, I guess,” replied Don, mentioning a town that was about twenty miles away. “Uncle Frank says that’s where she has her hangar. Perhaps we can go over there soon and get a closer look at her. Uncle Frank has a pull with the captain, and maybe he’d let us go all over the ship.”

“Wouldn’t that be dandy!” cried Teddy, with enthusiasm. “I’ve often wanted to see how a dirigible was made, but never had the chance.”

Two days later, as Don stepped into the living room, he saw that Captain Sturdy was in earnest conversation with a tall, powerfully built man whom Don had never seen before.

Don excused himself and was about to withdraw, when his uncle called him back.

“This is the lad I was talking to you about,” said the captain to his guest. “Don, this is Captain Hargot of the airship that I’m going in. Captain Hargot, this is my nephew, Don Sturdy.”

The two shook hands cordially. The visitor scanned Don with keen but kindly eyes, and seemed to be satisfied with the inspection.

“We were just talking about you when you came in,” said Captain Sturdy, as he motioned Don to a seat.

“Saying nothing especially bad, I hope,” remarked Don, with a smile.

“Quite the contrary,” affirmed Captain Hargot. “Captain Sturdy seems to think that the sun and stars revolve around that nephew of his. And I don’t wonder, after what he’s been telling me about your adventures with the Arabs in the Sahara and the bandits in Egypt and the big snakes in Brazil.”

“I’m afraid he’s too partial,” deprecated Don, who could not help being gratified at his uncle’s affectionate pride in him, and yet was wondering why he should have been the subject of the conversation.

“I’ve got a boy just about your age, or perhaps a year or so older,” observed Captain Hargot. “I guess that’s the only respect in which he does resemble you, though,” he added, with a sudden touch of bitterness.

“I’d be glad to have had you bring him with you,” remarked Don politely.

“I don’t know where he is,” replied Captain Hargot somberly.

This was such an unusual statement, coming from a father, that Don and his uncle maintained silence, not knowing just what to say.

“You see,” went on Captain Hargot, seeming to feel the need of unburdening himself, “the boy has no mother, and my work as an aviator has kept me so much away from home that I haven’t been able to look after him as I should have liked to. A little while ago he wanted to go out with a camping party; but I didn’t like the crowd that was going along—some of them were hard drinkers—and I wouldn’t let him go. And a few days ago I got word from the housekeeper that he had run away from home.”

“That’s too bad,” said Captain Sturdy sympathetically. “But it may be just a boyish impulse, and probably he’ll soon turn up again.”

“I wish I could think so,” returned the visitor gloomily. “I’ve had search made for him everywhere, but I haven’t been able to get any word of him. I’m afraid he’s got into bad company. He’s always been easily influenced. But there,” the aviator added, straightening up in his chair, “there’s no use of my burdening you with my private troubles. Suppose, Captain Sturdy, you put that thing we were talking about up to your nephew.”

Don looked from one to the other in some surprise.

“Don,” said his uncle, with a quizzical smile, “if you were asked just now what you’d rather do than anything else in the world, what would you say?”

“To fly with you to the North Pole,” answered Don promptly.

“All right,” said his uncle. “Come along.”