Read Ebook: Doctor Jones' Picnic by Chapman S E Samuel E

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Ebook has 947 lines and 51548 words, and 19 pages

ents that were hauled in wagons. Our trains had been so large and cumbersome that military movements were inconceivably slow, and the war could never have been fought to a successful issue by the North on those lines."

"I suppose, Doctor, that you were in some of the great battles?" asked Fred.

"Yes, I was in the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, through the Atlantic campaign; then under General Geo. H. Thomas we marched back into Tennessee, fought a desperate battle at Franklin, and a few weeks later annihilated the army at Nashville. While we were doing this, Sherman was making his renowned march to the sea. But I'll spin you some of my experiences before we get back home. Let's join the ladies."

"I should never tire hearing your war stories," said Fred.

"Yes; and you would be the first one to go to sleep if I should tell you of the battle of Chickamauga or Missionary Ridge."

This Fred stoutly denied. "All right," said the Doctor. "I'll test you one of these evenings."

"The sooner the better," replied Fred. "And now let's have some music."

They sang several anthems and choruses, and all retired at an early hour, except Denison, who stood watch.

In the Heart of Labrador.

The central room of the cabin was called the 'engine room.' It was fifteen feet square, with a hole three feet in diameter in one corner, now securely covered. It was used for lowering or hoisting objects through while the globe was at anchor. An aluminum frame or cage, attached to a windlass by a chain of the same material, was used for this purpose. A powerful coil steel spring operated the windlass. In each of the other corners of the room were anchors of aluminum, also attached to windlasses and worked by steel springs. There was a dynamo that afforded abundance of light for the ship. This, too, was run by spring power. The rooms of the cabin were brilliantly lighted, and the spiral stairway, from the foot of the mast which stood upon the center of the floor of the engine-room, was illuminated by several lights, up to the observatory itself. At the top, or ball of the mast, was a light of thirty-two hundred candle power. Altogether, the ship must have been at night an object of terrific splendor to the observer below.

Will was the originator of the steel-springs motor idea, and he daily attended to winding them with great faithfulness and pride. And it was a most invaluable adjunct to the comfort and success of the expedition, as will be seen before the end of this history is reached.

At daylight, on the following morning, all were up and looking out upon wild Canadian forests. Here and there were small towns and settlements, but they realized that they were fast hastening beyond the pale of civilization. The wind had moved during the night into the southwest, and the Professor informed them that they were sailing at the rate of more than thirty miles an hour.

"If this wind will only continue, we shall not be long reaching our destination," said the Doctor. "While I am enjoying the trip splendidly, yet I am anxious to reach the Pole as soon as possible. After that we will start on a general sightseeing tour. But until I have planted our aluminum shaft exactly upon the north end of the earth's axis, sightseeing is but incidental and secondary."

All day they skimmed like a frigate bird across the face of Canada, at an altitude of about two thousand feet. All were delighted with the behavior of the ship. Her capacity for floating and retaining heat far exceeded their most sanguine expectations.

It was interesting to watch the fast changing appearance of the country, and they could note that the timber was rapidly growing smaller. Clearings and settlements became more and more rare, and as the day closed they were looking upon primitive, unbroken forests, known only to hunters, both white and red.

Another night passed without incident. The wind held all night in the same quarter. On the following morning the beautiful ship was enveloped in a dense fog. "We are in the midst of a great cloud," said Professor Gray.

"I think we will rise a few hundred feet and see if we can get out of it," replied Dr. Jones.

The temperature within the globe was raised a few degrees, and the ship rapidly rose to twenty-five hundred feet altitude. This carried them high above the clouds, and it was with new and strange sensations that our aerial navigators looked down upon the dense cloud that obscured the face of the earth from their view. The sun, meantime, was shining with what seemed to them greatly increased splendor in this super-cloud region.

"Well, girls," cried the Doctor, "I am for some exercise. Who will mount with me to the observatory?"

They each assented, and a few moments later were sitting in that elevated place, very warm and breathless from the unwonted exercise of the long climb. This was Mattie's first visit to the observatory, and her eyes dilated with terror as she looked over the rolling sides of the massive globe.

"O, Doctor, Doctor! isn't this perfectly awful! Think of what the very slightest mistake or mishap would do. We should go flying down through those clouds, and be dashed to pieces in those uninhabited Canadian forests. And I suppose that our friends would never hear of us again.

"Tut, tut, Mattie. Cheer up, little girl," said the doctor, very soothingly, and patting her head with his steady, strong hand. "No mishap is possible. We cannot explode, collapse, burn, collide, nor capsize. No enterprise ever entered upon by man possessed so much of interest and importance, and was attended by so little of the element of danger. You were never safer in your life than you are at this moment. Think of it! Here we are above the clouds, the world with all its care and heartaches shut out, basking in this glorious sunlight, sailing on in this clear, bracing, microbeless atmosphere. The clouds beneath our feet, the sun above our heads, and God's empyrean all about us. What can be more inspiring and grand? How does the chorus of that old hymn run?

'Let us look above the clouds, Above the clouds, above the clouds; Up above the stormy clouds To fairer worlds on high.'"

The Doctor sang this simple chorus in his great sonorous voice that rang out over the clouds like a bugle blast.

"Well, I declare Doctor, you will not let me get into a real good fright," cried Mattie, smiling through eyes filled with tears.

"No, indeed, I will not, Mattie. The only fear I have now is that we may keep breakfast waiting. Let's descend."

The forenoon passed away very uneventfully. About the middle of the afternoon they were treated to a splendid spectacle. A terrific thunder storm raged beneath them; and as they looked below into the inky depths of the thunder clouds, pierced and riven by jagged lightnings, followed by deafening bellowings and crashings of thunder, and then cast their eyes up to the sun shining in full-orbed splendor over all, they realized as never before the presence and majesty of Omnipotence.

At four o'clock, P.M. the storm clouds cleared away, and the bleak, uninviting face of Labrador was plainly visible. The ship had settled to an altitude of fifteen hundred feet, and was moving northeasterly at the rate of thirty miles an hour.

"Isn't that a settlement I see ahead a few miles?" asked Will.

The Doctor and Professor Gray decided that it must be a fort or trading post. The ship, meantime, was lowering quite rapidly, and was but eight hundred feet above the earth.

"I have a mind to drop anchor at that fort for the night," said Dr. Jones. "Some fresh meat, especially game and fish, would not be at all bad to take. What do you all say?"

A general desire was expressed to do so.

They could see that the inhabitants of the place were greatly excited, and were running to and fro. The globe was lowered to within three hundred feet of the earth. As they neared the spot, two of the anchors were dropped, and soon caught in the birch tree tops. The ship strained tremendously at the cables for a moment or two, and then rode easily at anchorage, three hundred feet above the buildings.

"Fort ahoy!" shouted the Doctor.

"Ahoy!" replied a hoarse voice.

"What fort is this?"

"This is not a fort, but Constance House."

"Well, we are a party bound for the North Pole, and we wish to buy some provisions."

"All right. Come down, and we will do the best we can for you. But I think you have scared everybody on the place about to death."

The spring power was turned on, and the windlasses drew the globe to within one hundred feet of the earth. Then the Doctor and Denison descended in the cage. They met a splendidly built, large man, dressed in a semi-arctic suit of woolens and furs. The two voyagers introduced themselves, explained their business, and they were received very cordially by this man, John Barton, the proprietor and owner of Constance House. He invited the whole company to descend and make themselves at home as long as they desired to remain. So two by two they descended, Sing also joining the group below. The anchors were lashed to the trunks of the trees to prevent accidents from sudden gusts of wind.

They found Constance House to be a large one-story stone building, which served for both residence and storeroom. One-half of it was devoted to the storage of provisions, clothing, and such other goods as are required by hunters and trappers. These Mr. Barton exchanged for furs with said hunters and trappers. Hunting, trapping, and fishing constituted the sole business of the simple-minded inhabitants. Here they are born, live, die contentedly, knowing little of and caring nothing about the great world which the most of us are so anxious to possess.

Barton's family consisted of a wife, two strapping sons, who were hunters and trappers, and a daughter. The daughter's name was Jennie, aged eighteen. She was a strong, healthy, beautiful girl. Nothing could exceed the loveliness of her skin, the whiteness of her even teeth, or the graceful shapeliness of her form. Mrs. Jones and Mattie were immediately drawn to her. She met their advances freely and frankly, though her manners showed at once that she was not accustomed to such society. But she was so unaffectedly sweet and pure that the two ladies loved her all the better for her unsophistication. Mrs. Barton was an invalid, and they did not see her that evening.

After a bountiful supper the whole party drew up to a vast fireplace. In it roared a huge fire, for the night was very cold and frosty. For a time the air-ship and the object of their voyage was discussed. The admiration of Barton and the inhabitants of Constance House for the globe was unbounded. The wind had lulled away to a very gentle breeze, and the superlatively splendid globe hung above them so majestically, and glistened so beautifully in the moonlight, that it is not wonderful that these people, who saw and knew so little of the outside world, should be struck dumb with wonder and astonishment as they looked upon it.

"I must say," said Barton, "that I never experienced such sensations in my life as I did when your ship hove in sight. I have been mate of some good ships in my time, and have traveled over a good portion of the earth. I have seen many strange sights on land and sea, but this beats them all by so much that I shall never mention them again. And you are going to make the North Pole beyond a peradventure. Nothing could please me so well as to make one of your party. But my poor, poor wife!" He dropped his face into his hands, and tears trickled down upon his massive grey beard. The two sons and Jennie also participated in their father's grief.

"What is the matter with your wife?" asked Mrs. Jones, very gently. "Perhaps Dr. Jones might do something for her."

"No, no, madam; her case is a hopeless one. I took her down to Montreal last year, and the best medical men there were consulted. They could do absolutely nothing for her, and I have brought her home to die. I wanted to stay there with her, where she could have more of the comforts of life, but she preferred to come back to Constance House."

"While I know nothing of the nature of your wife's disease, yet I will say that I have cured many cases of so-called incurables. It is not that I know more of the nature of disease than the average physician, but I use drugs that they know nothing of, will not investigate, look at, nor even touch with the longest of tongs," said Dr. Jones.

"But, Doctor, my wife's case is cancer. They showed me the latest and best authorities, and they invariably gave what they called an 'unfavorable prognosis.' You would not undertake to say that this fearful disease is curable, would you?" cried Barton, very earnestly.

The Doctor saw that he had a very intelligent and well-informed man to deal with. He had conceived a liking for the grand old man, and desired, with all his good and kindly heart, to help this noble family in its distress and isolation from the civilized world. So he said slowly and impressively:

"Mr. Barton, I came to you this afternoon like a messenger from the skies. The way in which I came, and the ship in which I sailed, ought to entitle my word to some weight with you. Now I am going to say this: I have cured cancers, and believe that a large percentage of them are curable. I would like to see your wife, and if I can do anything for her, I shall be glad to do it."

"I thank you, Dr. Jones, with all my heart. Come right in with me," and Barton led the way to his wife's room. Half an hour later the Doctor came from the sick room, went out, jumped into the cage and mounted to the globe. He returned in a few moments and said: "I have here medicine, Mr. Barton, that is certain to do your wife a great amount of good. And I am quite positive that it will work a perfect cure. Her symptoms point so unmistakably and pronouncedly to a certain remedy that I feel safe in assuring you of immediate relief. I shall be much surprised if you do not see less pain, burning, restlessness, thirst--in short, a decidedly better night than she has known for months."

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