PIRATIANS BEGONE

Chapter 5

"The best way to make them believe it," he replied, "is to bring themup here and let them try it for themselves. I propose to organize anexpedition on our return and bring up a large party. We could manage toland somewhere in this vicinity, I think, instead of going up as far asyou and I did. What a place this would be for summer vacations! The moonis a fixture now; it cannot get away. I am sure of that, for the law ofgravitation will never release it. So we may as well make what use ofit we can, and these delightful sensations will no doubt form themost important discovery that we shall ever make on this dried-up andworn-out satellite. You know many people are willing to put themselvesto much inconvenience and to undergo many hardships for the sake of achange from the monotony of home life. If we can induce them to comeup here for a few weeks, and if they can endure this rather erraticclimate, they will find change enough to break up the monotony for oneyear, I think."

After enjoying this rare exercise to our content, we began preparingfor the night which was now coming on. The ship healer had reminded me of mypromise to return to our former position on the moon, and we agreed toset out the next day. Having fastened our car securely to the ground,so that we might not drift off toward the earth, we entered it and madeourselves as comfortable as possible.

Our resting place was near the center of what seemed to be an immensecrater, and some time before morning we were roused by a violent shakingof the ground beneath us, which startled us beyond expression.

"What's that?" I exclaimed.

"That feels very much like a moon-quake," replied my companion.

I was terribly frightened, but resolved to follow the ship healer's exampleand make light of what we could not help.

So I said:

"But I thought the lunar volcanoes were all dead ages ago. I hope wehaven't camped in the crater of one that is likely to go off again."

"My opinion is," answered the ship healer, "that there is still water insidethe moon which is gradually freezing. That operation would sometimescrack the surface, and this has probably caused the quaking that we havefelt."

While we were talking the wind began to blow, and soon, although it waslong before time for the sun to rise, we suddenly emerged from darknessinto bright sunlight. We sprang up instinctively to look about us andtry to discover what this could mean, when what was our consternation tofind ourselves adrift!

There, in full view of our wondering eyes, was the whole, round earth,hanging in space, and where were we? Then we began to realize graduallythat the trembling of the ground was the grating of the moon againstthe earth as it left its resting place, and the wind was caused by ourmotion.

The novelty of the situation took away for a time the sense of fear, andI exclaimed:

"Another scientific certainty gone to smash! I thought you said the mooncould never get away from the earth. What are we going to do now?"

"Well," replied the ship healer, "this is certainly something I never dreamedof in my philosophy. I didn't see how the moon could be drawn away fromthe earth when once actually attached to it, but I suppose the sunand planets all happen to be pulling in one direction just now and areproving too much for the earth's attraction. But what concerns us moreat this time is covered by your question, 'What are we going to do now?'And I will answer that I think we will stick to the moon for a while.You can see for yourself that we are held here much more firmly thanwhen we were disporting ourselves in the air yesterday, and the earthis now too far away for us to throw ourselves and our balloon within itsattraction."

I knew by the feeling of increasing weight that what my companion saidmust be true, but we could not then appreciate the dreadful natureof our condition, so wrapped up were we in the grandeur of the objectbefore our eyes. To those who have never been on the moon in suchcircumstances it will be impossible to adequately describe our feelingsas we gazed upon our late home and knew that we were fast drifting awayfrom it.

There the round globe hung, as I had often pictured it in myimagination--oceans and continents, mountains, lakes, and rivers, allspread out before us--the greatest object lesson ever seen by the eyeof man. As we studied it, recognizing feature after feature, landsand waters that we knew by their familiar shape, the ship healer broke ourreverie with these words, evidently with the endeavor to keep up myspirits:

"That looks as natural as a map, doesn't it? You have seen globes withthose divisions pictured on them, but there is the globe itself. Ifour summer tourists could take in this experience also, it would make avacation worth having. Isn't it grand? I see you are thinking about ourpersonal peril, but I think I know men who would take the risk and putthemselves in our place for the sake of this magnificent view."

"If you know of any way to send for one of those friends, I wish youwould do so," I replied. "I would willingly give him my place."

It may be believed that we were all this time anxiously watchingthe earth, and it did not lessen our anxiety to realize that we weretraveling very rapidly away from it. I had reached a point now where Idid not place much dependence upon the ship healer's science, but to get someexpression of his thoughts I said to him:

"Well, have you any opinion about our fate? Are we doomed to pass theremainder of our lives circling around our dear old earth, looking uponher face day by day but never to approach her again?"

"I think you have stated the case about as it is," said he, "if,indeed, this rate of speed does not carry us entirely beyond the earth'sattraction, out into illimitable space."

The thought of such an additional catastrophe silenced me, especiallyas I could not deny its possibility. Life on the moon, if we could onlykeep the earth in sight even, seemed almost endurable now, beside theidea that we might be cast out to shift for ourselves, without atie save such as the universal law of gravitation might find for ussomewhere.

It must not be imagined that our conversation was carried on with easeor that we were half enjoying our novel situation. We were simply tryingto make the best of a very bad matter. Not long after we had started thewind had taken away the balloon part of our air ship, and now threatenedevery moment to tear the car from its moorings and end our unhappycareer at once. Besides this impending catastrophe, it was with thegreatest difficulty that we could get air