Lost on the Moon by Roy Rockwood

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"And to think that people may have once lived here," observed Jack, in
a low voice.

"Yes, and to think that there may be people on the other side of the
moon even now," added Mark. "We must take a look if it's possible."

"Well," remarked Mr. Henderson, after a while, "are we going out and
see what it's like or not."

"Of course, we are," said Jack. "Come on, Mark, I'm not afraid."

"Me either. Do we have to do anything to the torches to make them
operate, Professor Roumann?"

"Merely press this lever," and the scientist showed them where there
was one in the handle of the steel rod. "As soon as that is pressed, it
admits a liquid to the chemicals and the oxygen gas is formed, rising
all around you, like a protecting vapor. After that it is automatic."

"How long will the supply of chemical last?" inquired Jack.

"Each one is calculated to give out gas for nearly two weeks," was the
reply; "possibly for a little longer. But come, I want to see how they
work. Here is your life-torch, Professor Henderson, and there is one
for you, too, Andy, and Washington."

"'Scuse me!" exclaimed the colored man hastily, as he started back
toward the kitchen.

"Why, what's the matter?" asked Jack. "Don't you want to go out, and
walk around the moon, and pick up diamonds?"

"Diamonds am all right," answered Washington, "but I jest done fo'got
dat I ain't fed my Shanghai rooster to-day, an' I 'spects he's mighty
hungry. You folks go on out an' pick up a few obde sparklers, an' when
I gits de Shanghai fed I'll prognosticate myse'f inter conjunction wif
yo' all."

"You mean you'll join us?" asked Mark.

"Dat's what I means, suah."

"Why, I do believe Washington's afraid!" cried Jack jokingly.

"Askeered! Who's afraid?" retorted the colored man boldly. "Didn't I
done tole yo' dat I got t' feed my rooster? Heah him crowin' now? Yo'
all go 'long, an' I'll meet yo' later," and with that Washington
disappeared quickly.

"Well, he'll soon pluck up courage and come out," declared Professor
Henderson. "Let him go now, and we'll go out and see what it is like on
the moon."

"I hope we find those diamonds," murmured Jack, and Mark smiled.

In order not to admit the poisonous gases into the projectile, it was
decided to leave the Annihilator and return to it by means of a double
door, forming a sort of air lock. It was similar to the water lock used
on the submarine. That is, the adventurers entered a chamber built in
between the two steel walls of their craft. The interior door was then
sealed shut automatically. Next the outer door was opened, and they
could step directly to the surface of the moon and into the deadly
atmosphere.

"Well, are we all ready?" asked Mr. Roumann, as he picked up one of the
chemical torches.

"I guess so," responded Andy Sudds, who had his gun with him. "I hope I
see some game. I haven't had a shot in a long while."

"You're not likely to up here," spoke Mr. Henderson. "Game is scarce on
the moon, unless it's some of that green cheese Washington talked
about."

They entered the air lock and fastened the door behind them. Then
Professor Roumann pressed on the lever that swung open the outer
portal.

"Hold your torches close to your head," he called. "The moon atmosphere
may be too strong for us at first until we create a mist of oxygen
about us."

Out upon the surface of the moon they stepped, probably the first earth
beings so to do, though they had evidence that the inhabitants of Mars
had preceded them.

For a moment they all gasped for breath, but only for a moment. Then
the gas began to flow from the life-torches, and they could breathe as
well as they had done while in the projectile, or while on the earth.

"Well, if this isn't great!" cried Jack, gazing about him.

"It certainly beats anything I ever saw," came from Mark.

"Wonderful, wonderful," murmured Professor Henderson. "We will be able
to gain much valuable scientific knowledge here, Professor Roumann. We
must at once begin our observations."

"I agree with you," spoke the German.

Andy Sudds said nothing. He was looking around for a sight of game,
with his rifle in readiness. But not a sign of life met his eager eyes.

Once they were outside the projectile it was even more desolate than it
had seemed when they looked from the observation windows. It was
absolutely still. Not a breath of wind fanned their cheeks, for where
there is no air to be heated and cooled there could be no wind which is
caused by the differences of temperature of the air, the cold rushing
in to fill the vacuum caused by the rising of the hot vapors. Clad in
their fur-lined garments, which effectually defied the cold, the
adventurers stepped out.

Over the rugged ground they went, gazing curiously about them. It was
like being in the wildest part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains of our
earth, and, in fact, the surface of the moon was not unlike the
mountainous and hilly sections of the earth. There were no long ranges
of rugged peaks, though, but rather scattered pinnacles and deep
hollows, great craters adjoining immense, towering steeples of rocks,
with comparatively level ground in between.

The life-torches worked to perfection. As our friends carried them,
there arose about their bodies a cloud of invisible vapor, which,
however, was as great a protection from the poisonous gases as a coat
of mail would have been.

"This is great!" exclaimed Jack. "It's much better than to have to put
on a diving-suit and carry a cylinder of oxygen or compressed air about
on our shoulders."

They strolled away from the projectile and gazed back at it. Nothing
moved--not a sound broke the stillness. There was only the blazing
sunlight, which, however, did not seem to warm the atmosphere much, for
it was very chilly. On every side were great rocks, rugged and broken,
with here and there immense fissures in the surface of the moon,
fissures that seemed miles and miles long.

"Well, here's where I look for diamonds," called Jack, as he stepped
boldly out, followed by Mark. "Let's see who'll find the first
sparkler."

"All right," agreed his chum, and they strolled away together, slightly
in advance of the two professors and Andy, who remained together, the
scientist discussing the phenomena on every side and the hunter looking
in vain for something to shoot. But he had come to a dead world.

Almost before they knew it Jack and Mark had gone on quite some
distance. Though they were not aware of it at that moment, it was much
easier to walk on the moon than it was on the earth, for they weighed
only one sixth as much, and the attraction of gravitation was so much
less.

But suddenly Jack remembered that curious fact, and, stooping, he
picked up a stone. He cast it from him, at the same time uttering a
yell.

"What's the matter?" called Mark.

"Look how far I fired that rock!" shouted Jack. "Talk about it being
easy! why, I believe I could throw a mile if I tried hard!"

"It goes six times as far as it would on the earth," spoke his chum,
"and we can also jump six times as far."

"Then let's try that!" proposed Jack. "There's a nice level place over
there. Come on, I'll wager that I can beat you."

"Done!" agreed Mark, and they hurried to the spot, their very walking
being much faster than usual.

"I'll go first," proposed Jack, "and you see if you can come up to me."
He poised himself on a little hummock of rock, balanced himself for a
moment, and then hurled himself through space.

Prepared as he was, in a measure, for something strange, he never
bargained for what happened. It was as if he had been fired from some
catapult of the ancient Romans. Through the air he hurtled, like some
great flying animal, covering fifty feet from a standing jump.

"Say, that's great!" yelled Mark. "Here I come, and I'll beat----"

He did not finish, for a cry of horror came from Jack.

"I'm going to fall into a crater--a bottomless pit! I'm on the edge of
it!" yelled the lad who had jumped.

And, with horror-stricken eyes, Mark saw his chum disappear from sight
beyond a pile of rugged rocks, toward which he had leaped. The last
glimpse Mark had was of the life-torch, which Jack held up in the air,
close to his head.

"Jack--in a crater!" gasped Mark, as he ran forward, holding his own
life-torch close to his mouth and nose.

CHAPTER XXI

WASHINGTON SEES A GHOST

Advancing by leaps and bounds, and getting over the ground in a manner
most surprising, Mark soon found himself on the edge of the great,
yawning crater, into which his chum Jack had started to slide. I say
started, for, fortunately, the lad had been saved from death but by a
narrow margin.

As Mark gazed down into the depths, which seemed fathomless, and which
were as black as night, he saw his friend clinging to a rocky
projection on the side of the extinct volcano. Jack had managed to
grasp a part of the rough surface as he slid down it after his reckless
jump. He looked up and saw Mark.

"Oh, Mark, can't you save me?" he gasped. "Call Professor Henderson!"

"I'll get you up, don't worry!" called Mark, as confidently as he
could. "Hold tight, Jack. What has become of your life-torch?"

"I have it here by me. I didn't drop it, and it's on a piece of the
rock near my head. Otherwise I couldn't breathe. Oh, this place is
fearfully deep. I guess it hasn't any bottom."

"Now, keep still, and don't think about that. Save your strength, hold
fast, and I'll get you up."

But, having said that much, Mark was not so sure how next to proceed.
It was going to be no easy task to haul up Jack, and that without ropes
or other apparatus. Another matter that added to the danger was the
necessity of keeping the life-torch close to one's face in order to
prevent death by the poisonous gases.

Mark's first impulse was to hasten back and call the two professors,
but he looked over the desolate landscape, and could not see them, and
he feared that if he went away Jack might slip and fall into the
unknown depths of the crater.

"I've got to get him out alone," decided Mark. "But how can I do it?"

He crawled cautiously nearer to the edge of the extinct volcano and
looked down. A few loose stones, dislodged by his weight, rattled down
the sides.

"Look out!" cried Jack quickly, "or you'll fall, too!"

"I'll be careful," answered Mark, and then he drew away out of danger,
with a queer feeling about his heart, which was beating furiously. Mark
had hoped to be able to make his way down the side of the crater to
where his chum was and help him up. But a look at the steep sides and
the uncertain footing afforded by the loose rocks of lava-like
formation showed that this could not be done.

"I've got to think of a different scheme," decided Mark, and, spurred
on by the necessity of acting quickly if he was to save Jack, he fairly
forced his brain to work. For he saw by the strained look on his chum's
face that Jack could not hold out much longer.

"I have it!" cried Mark at length. "My fur coat! I can cut it into
strips of hide and make a rope. Then I can lower it down to Jack and
haul him up."

He did not think, for the moment, of the cold he would feel when he
stripped off the fur garment, and when it did come to him in a flash he
never hesitated.

"After all, I've often been out without an overcoat on cold days," he
said to himself. "I guess I can stand it for a while, and when Jack is
up I can run back to the projectile and keep warm that way."

To think was to act, and Mark laid down his life-torch to take off the
big fur coat. The next instant he had toppled over, almost in a faint,
and, had he not fallen so that his head was near the small perforated
box on the end of the steel rod, whence came the life-giving gas, the
lad might have died.

He had forgotten, for the instant, the necessity of always keeping the
torch close to his face to prevent the poisonous gases of the moon from
overpowering him. Mark soon revived while lying on the ground, and,
rising, with his torch in his hand, he looked about him.

"I've got to have my two hands to work with," he mused, "and yet I've
got to hold this torch close to my face. Say, a fellow ought to have
three hands if he's going to visit the moon. What can I do?"

In an instant a plan came to him. He thrust the pointed end of the
steel rod in the crevice of some rocks, and it stood upright, so that
the perforated box of chemicals was on a level with his face.

"There," said Mark aloud, "I guess that will work. I can use both my
hands now." The plan was a good one. Next, taking off his coat, the lad
proceeded to cut it into strips, working rapidly. He called to Jack
occasionally, bidding him keep up his courage. "I'll soon have you
out," he said cheeringly.

In a few minutes Mark had a long, stout strip of hide, and, taking his
life-torch with him, he advanced once more to the edge of the crater.
He stuck the torch in between some rocks, as before, and looked down at
Jack.

"I--I can't hold on much longer," gasped the unfortunate lad. "Hurry,
Mark!"

"All right. I'm going to haul you up now. Can you hold on with one hand
long enough to slip the loop of this rope over your shoulders?"

"I guess so. But where did you get a rope?"

"I made it--cut up my fur coat."

"But you'll freeze!"

"Oh, I guess not. Here it comes, Jack. Get ready!"

Mark lowered the hide rope to his chum. The latter, who managed to get
one toe on a small, projecting rock, while he held on with his right
hand, used his left to adjust the loop over his shoulders and under his
arms.

"Are you all ready?" asked Mark.

"Yes, but can you pull me up?"

"Sure. I'm six times as strong as when on the earth. Hold steady now,
and keep the torch close to your face."

Mark had placed some pieces of his fur coat under the rope where it
passed over the edge of the mouth of the crater to prevent the jagged
rocks from cutting the strips of hide.

"Here you come!" he cried to Jack, and he began to haul, taking care to
keep his own head near his torch, which was stuck upright. Mark had
spoken truly when he said he possessed much more than his usual
strength. Any one who has tried to haul up a person with a rope from a
hole, and with no pulleys to adjust the strain of the cable, knows what
a task it is. But to Mark, on the moon, it was comparatively easy.

Hand over hand he pulled on the hide rope until, with a final heave, he
had Jack out of his perilous position. He had pulled him up from the
mouth of the crater, and the thick fur coat Jack wore had prevented the
sharp rocks from injuring him. In another moment he stood beside Mark,
a trifle weak and shaky from his experience, but otherwise unhurt.

"How did you happen to go down there?" asked Mark.

"Not from choice, I assure you," answered Jack. "I couldn't see the
crater when I jumped, as it was hidden by some rocks, and I was into it
before I knew it. But don't stand talking here. Put on my coat. I don't
need it. I'm warm."

"I will not. I'm not a bit cold. But we may as well get back to the
projectile, for they'll be worrying about us." Thereupon Mark broke
into a run, for, now that the exertion of hauling up Jack was over, he
began to feel cool, and the chilling atmosphere of the moon struck
through to his bones.

In a short time the two lads were back at the _Annihilator_, where
they found Professors Roumann and Henderson getting a bit anxious about
them. Their adventure was quickly related, and the boys were cautioned
to be more careful in the future.

"This moon is a curious, desolate place," said Mr. Henderson, "and you
can't behave on it as you would on the earth. We have discovered some
curious facts regarding it, and when we get back I am going to write a
book on them. But I think we have seen enough for the present, so we'll
stay in the rest of the day and plan for farther trips."

"Aren't we going to look for those diamonds?" asked Jack, who had
almost fully recovered from his recent experience.

"Oh, yes, we will look around for them," assented Mr. Roumann. "I
think, after a day or so, we will move our projectile to another part
of the moon. We want to see as much of it as possible."

They sat discussing various matters, and, while doing so, Washington
White peered into the living cabin.

"Has yo' got one ob dem torch-light processions t' spare?" he asked.

"Torch-light processions?" queried Mark. "What do you think this is, an
election, Wash?"

"I guess he means a life-torch," suggested Jack. "Are you going out,
Wash?"

"Yais, sah, I did think I'd take a stroll around. Maybe I kin find a
diamond fo' my tie."

Laughing, Jack provided the colored man with one of the torches,
instructing him how to use it, and presently Washington was seen
outside, walking gingerly around, as though he expected to go through
the crust of the moon any moment. Pretty soon, however, he got more
courage and tramped boldly along, peering about on the ground for all
the world, as Mark said, as if he was looking for chestnuts.

They paid no attention to the cook for some little time until, when the
boys and the two professors were in the midst of a discussion as to
where would be the best place to move the projectile next, they heard
him running along the corridor toward the cabin.

"Wash is in a hurry," observed Jack.

The next instant they sprang to their feet at the sight of the
frightened face of the colored man peering in on them. He was as near
white as a negro can ever be, which is a sort of chalk color, and his
eyes were wide open with fear.

"What's the matter?" asked Jack.

"A ghost! I done seen de ghost ob a dead man!" gasped the colored man.

"A ghost?" repeated Mark.

"Yais, sah, right out yeah! He's lyin' down in a hole--a dead man.
Golly! but I'se a scared coon, I is!" and Washington looked over his
shoulder as though he feared the "ghost" had followed him.

CHAPTER XXII

A BREAKDOWN

At first they were inclined to regard the announcement of Washington
lightly, but the too evident fright of the colored man showed that
there was some basis for his fear.

"Tell us just what you saw, and where it was," said Mr. Henderson. "Was
the man alive, Washington?"

"No, sah. How could a ghost be alive? Dey is all dead ones, ghosts am!"

"There are no such things as ghosts," said Mr. Henderson sternly.

"Den how could I see one?" demanded the cook triumphantly, as if there
was no further argument.

"Well, tell us about it," suggested Jack.

"It were jest dis way," began Washington earnestly, and with occasional
glances over his shoulder, "I were walkin' along, sort ob lookin' fer
dem sparklin' diamonds, an' I didn't see none, when all on a suddint I
looked down in a hole, and dere I seen HIM!" and he brought out the
word with a jerk.

"Saw what--who?" asked Mr. Roumann.

"De ghost--de dead man. He were lyin' all curled up, laik he were
asleep, an' when I seed him, I didn't stop t' call him t' dinner, yo'
can make up yo' minds t' dat all."

"Can you show us the place?" inquired Jack.

"Yais, sah, massa Jack, dat's what I kin. I'll point it out from dish
yeah winder, but I ain't g'wine dar ag'in; no, sah, 'scuse me!"

"Well, show us then," suggested Mark. "I wonder what it can be?" he
went on.

"Maybe one of the people who came from Mars after the diamonds, who was
forgotten and left here, and who died," said Jack.

"It's possible," murmured Mr. Henderson. "However, we'll go take a
look. Get on your fur coats, boys, and take the life-torches. Will you
come, Andy?"

"Sure. It's got to be more than a ghost to scare me," said the hunter.

They emerged from the projectile and walked in the direction Washington
had pointed, holding their gas torches near their heads and talking of
what they might see.

"This will be evidence in favor of my diamond theory," declared Jack.
"It shows that the Martians were here."

"Wait and see what it is," suggested his chum.

They walked along a short distance farther, and then Mark spoke.

"That ought to be the place over there," he said, pointing to a
depression between two tall pinnacles of black rock.

Jack sprang forward, and a moment later uttered a cry of astonishment.

"Here it is!" he called. "A dead man!"

"A dead man?" echoed Professor Henderson.

"A petrified man," added Jack, in awe-struck tones. "He's turned to
stone."

A few seconds later they were all grouped around the strange object--it
was a man no longer, but had once been one. It was a petrified human
being, a full-grown man, to judge by the size, and it was a solid image
in stone, even the garments with which he had been clothed being turned
to rock.

For a moment no one spoke, and they gazed in silence at what was an
evidence of former life on the moon. The man was huddled up, with the
knees drawn toward the stomach and the arms bent around the body, as if
the man had died in agony. The features were scarcely distinguishable.

"That man was never an inhabitant of Mars," spoke Professor Henderson,
in a low voice. "He is much too large, and he has none of the
characteristics of the Martians."

"I agree with you," came from Mr. Roumann.

"Then who is he?" asked Jack.

"I think," said the aged scientist, "that we are now gazing on all that
was once mortal of one of the inhabitants of the moon."

"An inhabitant of the moon?" gasped Mark.

"Yes; why not?" went on Mr. Henderson. "I believe the moon was once a
planet like our earth--perhaps even a part of it, and I think that it
was inhabited. In time it cooled so that life could no longer be
supported, or, at least, this side of the moon presents that
indication. The people were killed--frozen to death, and by reason of
the chemical action of the gases, or perhaps from the moon being
covered with water in which was a large percentage of lime, they were
turned to stone. That is what happened to this poor man."

"Such a thing is possible," admitted Professor Roumann gravely.

And, indeed, it is, as the writer can testify, for in the Metropolitan
Museum in New York there are the remains of an ancient South American
miner, whose body has been turned into solid copper. The corpse, of
which the features are partly distinguishable, was found four hundred
feet down in an old copper mine, where the dripping from hidden
springs, the waters of which were rich in copper sulphate, had
converted the man's body into a block of metal, retaining its natural
shape. The body is drawn up in agony, and there is every indication
that the man was killed by a cave-in of the mine. Some of his tools
were found near him.

They remained gazing at the weird sight of the petrified man for some
time.

"Then the moon was once inhabited?" asked Jack at length.

"I believe so--yes," answered Professor Henderson.

"Then where are the other people?" asked Mark. "There must be more than
one left. Why was this man off here alone?"

"We don't know," responded the German scientist. "Perhaps he was off
alone in the mountains when death overtook him, or perhaps all his
companions were buried under an upheaval of rock. We can only
theorize."

"It will be something else to put in the book I am to write," said Mr.
Henderson. "But, now that we have evidence of former life on the moon,
we must investigate further. We will make an attempt to go to the other
side of the country, and to that end I suggest that we set our
projectile in motion and travel a bit. There is little more to see
here."

This plan met with general approval, and, after some photographs had
been taken of the petrified man, and the professors had made notes, and
set down data regarding him, and had tried to guess how long he had
been dead, they went back to the _Annihilator_.

"Well, did yo' all see him?" asked Washington.

"We sure did," answered Jack. "You weren't mistaken that time."

They got ready to move the projectile, but decided to remain over night
where they were. "Over night" being the way they spoke of it, though,
as I have said, there was perpetual daylight for fourteen days at a
time on the moon.

Professors Roumann and Henderson made a few more observations for
scientific purposes. They found traces of some vegetation, but it was
of little value for food, even to the lower forms of animal life, they
decided. There was also a little moisture; noticed at certain hours of
the day. But, in the main, the place where they had landed was most
desolate.

"I hope we get to a better place soon," said Jack, just before they
sealed themselves up in the projectile to travel to a new spot.

As distance was comparatively small on the moon, for her diameter is
only a little over two thousand miles and the circumference only about
six thousand six hundred miles, the _Annihilator_ could not be speeded
up. If it went too fast, it would soon be off the moon and into space
again.

Accordingly the Cardite motor was geared to send the big craft along at
about forty miles an hour, and at times they went even slower than
that, when they were passing over some part of the surface which the
professors wished to photograph or observe closely.

They did not rise high into the air, but flew along at an elevation of
about two hundred feet, steering in and out to avoid the towering peaks
scattered here and there. Occasionally they found themselves over
immense craters that seemed to have no bottom.

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