Lost on the Moon by Roy Rockwood

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For two days they moved here and there, finding no further signs of
life, neither petrified nor natural, though they saw many strange
sights, and some valuable pictures and scientific data was obtained.

It was on the third day, when they were approaching the side of the
moon which from time immemorial has been hidden from view of the
inhabitants of the earth, that Jack, who was with Mark in the engine
room, while the two professors were in the pilot-house, remarked to his
chum: "Mark, doesn't it strike you that the water pump and the air
apparatus aren't working just right?"

"They don't seem to be operating very smoothly," admitted Mark, after
an examination.

"That's what I thought. Let's call Mr. Henderson. The machinery may
need adjusting."

Jack started from the engine room to do this, and as he paused on the
threshold there was a sudden crash. Part of the air pump seemed to fly
off at a tangent, and a second later had smashed down on the Cardite
motor. This stopped in an instant, and the projectile began falling.
Fortunately it was but a short distance above the moon's surface, and
came down with a jar, which did not injure the travellers.

But there was sufficient damage done to the machinery, for with the
breaking of the air pump the water apparatus also went out of
commission, and together with the breakdown of the Cardite motor had
fairly stalled the _Annihilator_.

"What's the matter?" cried Professor Henderson, running in from the
pilot-house, for an automatic signal there had apprised him that
something was wrong.

"There's a bad break," said Jack ruefully.

"A bad break! I should say there was," remarked the scientist. "I think
we'll have to lay up for repairs." And he called Mr. Roumann.

CHAPTER XXIII

LOST ON THE MOON

Notwithstanding that they were somewhat accustomed to having accidents
happen, it was not with the most pleasant feelings in the world that
the moon travellers contemplated this one. It meant a delay, and a
delay was the one thing they did not want just now.

They desired to get to the other side of the moon while the long period
of sunshine gave them an opportunity for observation. True there was
some time yet ere the long night of fourteen days would settle down,
but they felt that they would need every hour of sunshine.

"Well, it's tough luck, but it can't be helped," said Mark.

"No, let's get right to work," suggested Jack.

They got out their tools and started to repair the two pumps. It was
found that the Cardite motor was not badly damaged, one of the negative
electrical plates merely having been smashed by a piece of the broken
connecting rod of the air pump. It was only a short time before the
motor was ready to run again.

But it could not be successfully operated without the air and water
pumps, and it was necessary to fix them next. New gaskets were needed,
while an extra valve and some sliding gears had to be replaced.

"It's an all day's job," remarked Professor Henderson.

But many hands made light work, and even Washington and Andy were
called upon to do their share. By dinner time the work was more than
half done, and Professor Roumann, announced that he and Mr. Henderson
would finish it if Jack and Mark would take a look at the exterior of
the projectile, to see if any repairs were needed to that.

The boys found that some of the exterior piping had become loosed at
the joints, because of the jar of the sudden descent, and, taking the
necessary tools outside, while they stuck their life-torches upright
near them, they labored away.

At four o'clock the two lads had their task completed, and at the same
time Professor Henderson announced that the air and water pumps were
now in good shape again.

"Then let's get under way at once," suggested Mr. Roumann. "We have
lost enough time as it is. Hurry inside, boys, and we'll start."

The two chums were glad enough to do so, and in a few minutes they were
again moving through the air toward the unknown portion of the moon.

Below the travellers, as they could see by looking down through a
plate-glass window in the floor of the projectile, were the same rugged
peaks, the same large and small craters that had marked the surface of
the moon from the time they had first had a glimpse of it. There was an
uninteresting monotony about it, unrelieved by any save the very
sparest vegetation.

"I am beginning to think more and more that we will find people on the
other side of this globe," remarked Mr. Roumann, as he made an
observation through a telescope.

"What strengthens your belief?" inquired Mr. Henderson.

"The fact that the vegetation is growing thicker. There are many more
plants below us now than there were before. This part of the moon is
better able to support life than the portion we have just come from."

This seemed to be so, but they were still some distance from the
opposite side of the moon.

"I don't see anything of those diamonds you talked so much about,
Jack," said Mark, with a smile, a little later. "I guess all the
Reonaris you get you can put in a hollow tooth."

"You wait," was all Jack replied.

The projectile was slowed up to permit the two professors to make some
notes regarding a particularly large and deep crater, and a few minutes
later when Mark, who was in the engine room, attempted to speed up the
Cordite motor it would not respond.

"Humph! I wonder what's wrong?" he asked of Jack.

"Better call Mr. Roumann, and not try to fix it yourself," suggested
his chum, when, in response to various movements of the lever, the
machine seemed to go slower and slower.

The German came in answer to the summons.

"Ha!" he exclaimed, "that motor is broken again. We shall have to stop
once more for repairs. I shall need to take it all apart, I fear. Get
me the negative plate remover, will you, Mark?"

The lad went to the tool chest for it. He opened the lid and fumbled
about inside.

"It doesn't seem to be here," he announced.

"What! the negative plate remover not there?" cried the professor.
"Why, it must be. It is one of the new tools we got, and it has not
been used for anything; has it?".

"Oh, by Jinks!" cried Jack suddenly.

"What's the matter?" asked his chum.

"That plate remover! Don't you remember you and I had it when we were
fixing the pipes outside the projectile, when we had the other
breakdown? We must have left it back there on the ground."

Jack and his chum gazed blankly at each other.

"I guess we did," admitted Mark dubiously.

"And it is the only one we have," said Mr. Roumann. "We need it very
much, too, for the projectile can't very well be moved without it."

"How can we get it?" asked Jack. "I'm sorry. It was my fault."

"It was as much mine as yours," asserted Mark. "I guess it's up to us
to go back after it. It isn't far. We can easily walk it."

There seemed to be nothing else to do, and, after some discussion, it
was decided to have the two boys walk back after the missing tool,
which was a very valuable one.

"Take fresh life-torches with you," advised Mr. Henderson, "and you had
better carry some food with you. It may be farther back than you think,
and you may get hungry."

"I guess it will be a good thing to take some lunch along," admitted
Jack. "And some water, too. We can't get a drink here unless we come to
a spring, and we haven't seen any since we arrived."

"I'll go with you, if you don't mind," said Andy. "I may see something
to shoot."

The three of them, each one carrying a freshly charged vapor-torch, a
basket of food and a bottle of water, started off, well wrapped in
their fur coats. Andy had a compass to enable them to make their way
back to where the tool was left, for, amid the towering peaks and the
valley-like depressions, very little of the level surface of the moon
could be seen at a time.

They walked on for several hours, every now and then hoping that they
had reached the place where the projectile had been halted, and where
they expected to find the tool. But so many places looked alike that
they were deceived a number of times.

At length, however, they reached the spot and found the instrument
where Jack had carelessly dropped it. They picked it up and turned to
go back, when Andy Sudds saw a large crater off to one side.

"Boys, I'm going to have a look down that," he said. "It may contain a
bear or wildcat, and I can get a shot."

"Guess there isn't much danger of a bear being on the moon," said Mark,
but the old hunter leaned as far over the edge of the crater as he
dared.

"No, there's nothing here," he announced, with almost a sigh, and he
straightened up. As he did so there came a tinkling sound, as if some
one had dropped a piece of money.

"What's that?" asked Jack.

"By heck! It's the compass!" cried Andy. "It slipped from my pocket
when I stooped over. Now it's gone!"

There was no question of that. They could hear the instrument tinkling
far down in the unfathomable depths, striking from side to side of the
crater as it went down and down.

"We'll never see that again," spoke Mark dubiously. "Can we get back to
the projectile without it?" asked Jack.

"Oh, I fancy I can pick my trail back," answered the hunter. "It isn't
going to be easy, for there are no landmarks to guide me, but I'll do
my best. I ought to have known better than to put a compass in that
pocket."

It was not with very light hearts that they started back, and for a
time they went cautiously. Then, as they seemed to get on familiar
ground, they increased their pace and covered several miles.

"Say," remarked. Jack, as he sat down on a big stone. "I don't know how
the rest of you feel, but I'm tired. We've come quite a distance since
we picked up that tool."

"Yes, farther than it took us to find it after we left the projectile,"
added Mark. "I wonder if we're going right?"

The two boys looked at Andy. He scratched his head in perplexity.

"I can't be sure, but it seems to me that we came past here," he said.
"I seem to remember that big rock."

"There are lots like it," observed Jack.

"Suppose we try over to the left," spoke Mark, after they had rested
for ten minutes.

They swerved in that direction, and, after keeping on that trail for
some time, and becoming more and more convinced that it was the wrong
one, they turned to the right. That did not bring them to familiar
ground, and there was no sight of the projectile.

"Let's go straight ahead," suggested Andy, after a puzzled pause. "I
think that will be best."

"Well, which way is straight ahead?" asked Mark.

"That's so, it is hard to tell," admitted the hunter. "I wish I hadn't
lost that compass."

They wandered about for an hour longer. They could seem to make no
progress, though they covered much ground. Suddenly Jack called out:

"Say, we've been going around in a circle!"

"In a circle?" asked Mark.

"Yes," went on his chum. "Here's the very rock I sat down on a while
ago. I remember it, for I scratched my initials on it."

Jack pointed out the letters. There was no disputing it. They had made
a complete circle. For a moment they maintained silence in the face of
this alarming fact. Then Mark exclaimed:

"I guess we're lost!"

"Lost on the moon!" added Jack, in an awestruck voice, and he gazed on
the chill and desolate scene all about them; the great pinnacles of
rocks, in fantastic form; the immense black caverns of craters on
either hand; the sickly green vegetation.

"Lost on the moon!" whispered Mark, and there was not even an echo of
his voice to keep them company. Only a chill, desolate silence!

CHAPTER XXIV

DESOLATE WANDERINGS

For a moment the three stood helplessly there and stared at each other.
They could scarcely comprehend their situation at first. Then, with a
glance at the cold and quiet scene all about them, a look up at the
sun, which was the only cheerful object in the whole landscape, Jack
observed: "Oh, I say, come on now, don't let's give up this way! We
have only taken a wrong turn, and I'll wager that the projectile will
be just around the corner. Come on," and he started off.

"Yes," said Mark, "that's the trouble. There are so many corners, and
we have taken so many wrong turns, that we're all confused. I think the
best thing to do will be to stay here a while and pull ourselves
together."

"That's right," spoke old Andy. "Many a time in the woods I've got all
confused-like, and then I'd sit down and think, and I'd get on the
right path in a few minutes after."

"The trouble here is," said Jack, "that there are no woods. If there
were we might know how to get out of them. But think of it! Lost on
the moon, in the midst of a whole lot of queer mountain peaks, and big
holes that would hold half a dozen cities of the United States at the
same time, and never know it! This is a fearful place to be lost in!"

"I'm not going to admit that we're lost," declared Mark stoutly.

"Hu! You're like the Indian," spoke Jack. "The Indian who got lost in
the woods. He insisted that it wasn't he who was lost, that it was his
wigwam that couldn't be found. He knew where he himself was all the
while. That's our case, I suppose. We're here, but the projectile is
lost."

"Ha! ha!" laughed Andy Sudds. "That's a pretty good joke!"

"But not being able to find the projectile is no joke," went on Mark,
who always took matters more seriously than did his chum. "What are we
going to do?" he added. "We can't stay here like this."

"Maybe we'll have to," declared Jack. "We certainly can't get off the
moon--at least, not until we reach the projectile, and I'd like to
discover those diamonds before we go back."

"Hu! Those diamonds!" exploded Mark. "I think this whole thing is a
wild-goose chase, anyhow! If it hadn't been for those diamonds we
wouldn't have come to the moon. I don't believe there are any diamonds
here, anyhow."

"Well, I can't prove it to you now, but I will before we get back,"
asserted Jack. "We'll be wearing diamonds, as the song says."

"Diamonds aren't going to keep us warm when we're freezing," went on
Mark, who seemed bound to look on the dark side, "and we can't eat 'em
when we're hungry. A lot of good they'll do us if we do find them!"

"Oh, cheer up!" suggested Jack cheerfully. "And, speaking of eating,
what's the matter with having some lunch? What did we bring it along
for if we're not going to eat? Let's begin."

His good spirits were contagious, not that Andy needed any special
cheering up, but Mark did. In a few minutes they were seated on some
rugged rocks, and, with their life-torches stuck in cracks, so that the
perforated metal boxes of chemicals would be on a level with their
faces, they opened the baskets they had been fore-sighted enough to
bring with them.

"Why, I feel better already," asserted Jack, as he munched some
sandwiches which Washington White had made. "As soon as we've finished
we'll have another hunt for the projectile, and I'll wager that we'll
find it."

"I wouldn't finish if I were you," suggested Andy, who was eating
sparingly.

"Finish what?" asked Jack.

"All your lunch. You see," the old hunter went on, "we may find the
projectile, and, again, we may not. I'm inclined to think we're not so
very far from it, but we may be some time locating it in among all
these peaks and craters. So it will be the best plan to save some of
our lunch and drinking water until--well, until we're hungry again,"
and he carefully put back into his basket the remains of the food.

"You don't mean to say you think we'll be all day finding the
Annihilator, do you?"

Jack paused, with a sandwich half way to his mouth as he asked this
question.

"Well, it's best to be on the safe side," spoke Andy guardedly. "We may
find it, and, again, we may not. Save your powder against the time of
need, I say--by powder meaning victuals and drink. We can't drop in a
restaurant up here, and I don't see much game to shoot, and I should
hate to eat such fodder as this," and he poked with his foot some
sickly green vines, growing on the ground.

The boys' faces, which had become more cheerful, assumed a serious
look. Jack stopped eating at once and placed back in the basket his
remaining sandwiches. He also corked up the bottle of water, which was
kept from freezing by means of a fur pouch in which it was carried.

"If there's a possibility of being lost some time," spoke Mark, "we'd
better figure out just how long our food will last," and he examined
the contents of his basket.

Fortunately Washington White, with a knowledge of the appetites of the
chums, had filled the baskets with lavish hands. There was, they found,
food enough to last them three days, if they ate sparingly, and there
was enough water for half that time, providing they only took small
sips when thirsty. But they had noticed, in one or two places, little
pools of liquid, which they had not tasted, but which might prove to be
drinking water. Certainly they would need more if they were destined to
remain away from the projectile for very long.

"Well, then," observed Mark, when the food calculation was over, "it
appears that we can remain lost for about three days, at the most."

"Oh, but we'll be back home--I mean in the projectile--long before
that," declared Jack.

"I wish I was sure of that," murmured Andy with a dubious shake of his
head.

"Well, let's move on again," suggested Jack. "We feel better now, and
maybe we'll have better luck."

They started off, tramping over the rugged surface of the moon, while
the sun shone with tepid heat down on them. They had to go this way and
that to avoid the immense fissures in the ground or the yawning
craters, which loomed deep, and in awful silence, in their path.
Sometimes they climbed small mountains or crawled in and out of small
craters, slipping and stumbling.

They were not cold, for their fur garments kept them comfortably warm,
and there was no wind to make the freezing temperature search through
the crevices of their clothing. But it was the desolate silence, the
utter absence of any form of life save the pale green vegetation that
got on their nerves. It was like being in a dead world--on a planet
that seemed about to dissolve into space.

They began their further search for the projectile with hope in their
hearts, but this gradually gave way to despair as they wandered on over
the desolate surface, and saw nothing but the same rugged peaks, the
same yawning caverns and the innumerable craters, large and small.

On they wandered, looking on all sides for the missing projectile, but
they had no glimpse of it. Even climbing to one of the high peaks,
whence they had a view of the surrounding country, afforded them no
trace of the _Annihilator_, They were utterly lost.

Old Andy, who, by reason of his experience as a trapper and hunter, had
taken the lead, came to a halt. He looked around helplessly. He did not
know what to do.

"Well, boys," he remarked at length, "I don't like to say it, but I
can't seem to get anywhere. I give up."

"Give up?" murmured Jack, in blank dismay.

"Yes, for the time being," said the old man. "I'm all played out. I
guess we all are. We must have a rest. Here's a sort of cave. Let's
crawl in and have a sleep. Then maybe we can do something to-morrow--
no, not to-morrow, for they don't have that on the moon, where the day
is fourteen days long--but after we sleep we may be able to find our
way back. Anyhow, I've got to get some sleep," and without another word
the old hunter went into the cave, and, fixing his life-torch near his
head, where the fumes from it would dissipate the poisonous gases of
the moon, he closed his eyes, and was soon in slumber.

"I--I guess we'd better do the same," said Jack, and Mark nodded. They
were both sick at heart.

CHAPTER XXV

THE PETRIFIED CITY

For a time, after they had entered the cave, which was in the side of a
rugged mountain, the boys talked in low tones of their perilous
situation. For that it was perilous they both knew. Had they been on
the earth, lost in some desolate part of it, away from civilization,
their plight, would have been bad enough with what little food they
possessed.

But on the far-off moon--the dead moon, which contained no living
creatures save themselves, as far as they could tell--with no form of
animal life that might serve to keep them from starving, with only the
scantiest of vegetation, their situation was most deplorable.

"And then there's another thing," said Mark, as if he was cataloguing a
list of their troubles.

"What is it?" asked Jack. "I guess we have all the troubles that belong
to us, and more, too."

"Well, what are we going to do when the life-torches give out, and we
can't breathe any more?" asked Mark dubiously.

"Well, I guess it'll be all up with us then, if we don't starve to
death in the meanwhile," answered Jack. "But I'm afraid we will get out
of food before the torches are exhausted. They were freshly filled
before we started out after that tool, and they'll last for two weeks.
So we don't have to worry about that.

"By Jinks! this is all my fault, anyhow, it seems. If I hadn't seen
that item in the Martian paper about the diamonds, we never would have
come here, and if I hadn't left that tool on the ground outside of the
projectile we wouldn't have had to come back after it, and we wouldn't
have become lost. So I guess it's up to me, as the boys say."

"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Mark, who, as soon as he heard his chum
blaming his own actions, was ready to shoulder part of the
responsibility himself. "We all wanted to come to the moon," he went
on, "and, as for leaving the tool and forgetting it, I'm as much at
fault as you are. Let's go to sleep, and maybe we'll feel better when
we wake up."

It was a new role for Mark--to be cheerful in the face of difficulties
--and Jack appreciated it. They stretched out on the hard, rocky floor
of the cavern, taking care to fix their life-torches so that the fumes
would dispel the poisonous gases. Then the two lads joined Andy in
slumberland.

Meanwhile, as may be imagined, those aboard the projectile were very
anxious about the fate of the two boys and the hunter. They could not
understand what delayed them, and, though they guessed the real cause,
after several hours had passed, there was nothing the two scientists
could do.

They could not move the projectile until it had been repaired, and this
could not be done, without the tool--at least, they did not believe so
then. Nor did Mr. Henderson and the German think it would be safe to
start out in search of the wanderers.

"For," said Mr. Henderson, "if we went we would easily get lost amid
these peaks ourselves, and they are so much alike and in such numbers
that there is no distinguishing feature about them. We had better stay
here in charge of the _Annihilator_ until the boys and Andy come back.
They can't be away much longer now."

So worn out and exhausted were the boys and the hunter that they slept
for several hours in the cave, and the rest did them good. They awoke
in better spirits, and, after a frugal meal and a sip of the fast-
dwindling water, they started off once more to locate the projectile.

"I'm a regular amateur hunter to go and lose my compass," complained
old Andy. "I ought to have it fastened to me, like a baby does the
rattle-box. I ought to kick myself," and he accepted all the blame for
their misadventure. But the boys would not suffer him to thus accuse
himself, and they insisted that they would shortly be with the two
professors and Washington in the _Annihilator_ once more.

"Well, it can't come any too soon," said Jack, "for I am beginning to
feel the need of a square meal and a big drink of water."

"So am I," said Mark, "but let's not think of it."

All that day they wandered on, crossing the rugged mountains, climbing
towering peaks, and descending into deep valleys. At times they skirted
the lips of craters, to look shudderingly into the depths of which made
them dizzy, for the bottoms were lost to sight in the black gloom that
enshrouded the yawning holes.

Their food was getting less and less, and what there was of it was most
unpalatable, for the bread was stale and dry, though the meat kept
perfectly in that freezing temperature. How they longed for a hot cup
of coffee, such as Washington used to make! and how they would have
even exchanged their chance of filling their pockets with the moon
diamonds for a good meal, such as was so often served in the
projectile!

On and on they went. Once, as they were crossing the lip of a great
crater, Mark became dizzy, and would have fallen had not Jack caught
him. Mark had forgotten, for the moment, and had lowered his life-
torch, so that his mouth and nose were not enclosed in the film of
vapor that emanated from the perforated box.

"You must be careful," Andy warned them.

"What's the use?" asked Mark despondently. "I don't believe we'll ever
find the projectile."

"Of course we will!" exclaimed Jack. "I know we can't be far from it,
only we can't see it because of the mountains. If we only had some way
of letting them know where we are, they could signal to us."

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