VERNANIA: The Celebrated Works of Jules Verne in One Edition. Жюль Верн

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СКАЧАТЬ of the river. This stronghold was defended by Paul Holl, who, for several months, without provisions or ammunition, held out until Colonel Faidherbe came to his relief. Al-Hadji and his bands then repassed the Senegal, and reappeared in the Kaarta, continuing their rapine and murder.—Well, here below us is the very country in which he has found refuge with his hordes of banditti; and I assure you that it would not be a good thing to fall into his hands.”

      “We shall not,” said Joe, “even if we have to throw overboard our clothes to save the Victoria.”

      “We are not far from the river,” said the doctor, “but I foresee that our balloon will not be able to carry us beyond it.”

      “Let us reach its banks, at all events,” said the Scot, “and that will be so much gained.”

      “That is what we are trying to do,” rejoined Ferguson, “only that one thing makes me feel anxious.”

      “What is that?”

      “We shall have mountains to pass, and that will be difficult to do, since I cannot augment the ascensional force of the balloon, even with the greatest possible heat that I can produce.”

      “Well, wait a bit,” said Kennedy, “and we shall see!”

      “The poor Victoria!” sighed Joe; “I had got fond of her as the sailor does of his ship, and I’ll not give her up so easily. She may not be what she was at the start— granted; but we shouldn’t say a word against her. She has done us good service, and it would break my heart to desert her.”

      “Be at your ease, Joe; if we leave her, it will be in spite of ourselves. She’ll serve us until she’s completely worn out, and I ask of her only twenty-four hours more!”

      “Ah, she’s getting used up! She grows thinner and thinner,” said Joe, dolefully, while he eyed her. “Poor balloon!”

      “Unless I am deceived,” said Kennedy, “there on the horizon are the mountains of which you were speaking, doctor.”

      “Yes, there they are, indeed!” exclaimed the doctor, after having examined them through his spyglass, “and they look very high. We shall have some trouble in crossing them.”

      “Can we not avoid them?”

      “I am afraid not, Dick. See what an immense space they occupy—nearly one-half of the horizon!”

      “They even seem to shut us in,” added Joe. “They are gaining on both our right and our left.”

      “We must then pass over them.”

      These obstacles, which threatened such imminent peril, seemed to approach with extreme rapidity, or, to speak more accurately, the wind, which was very fresh, was hurrying the balloon toward the sharp peaks. So rise it must, or be dashed to pieces.

      “Let us empty our tank of water,” said the doctor, “and keep only enough for one day.”

      “There it goes,” shouted Joe.

      “Does the balloon rise at all?” asked Kennedy.

      “A little—some fifty feet,” replied the doctor, who kept his eyes fixed on the barometer. “But that is not enough.”

      In truth the lofty peaks were starting up so swiftly before the travellers that they seemed to be rushing down upon them. The balloon was far from rising above them. She lacked an elevation of more than five hundred feet more.

      The stock of water for the cylinder was also thrown overboard and only a few pints were retained, but still all this was not enough.

      “We must pass them though!” urged the doctor.

      “Let us throw out the tanks—we have emptied them.” said Kennedy.

      “Over with them!”

      “There they go!” panted Joe. “But it’s hard to see ourselves dropping off this way by piecemeal.”

      “Now, for your part, Joe, make no attempt to sacrifice yourself as you did the other day! Whatever happens, swear to me that you will not leave us!”

      “Have no fears, my master, we shall not be separated.”

      The Victoria had ascended some hundred and twenty feet, but the crest of the mountain still towered above it. It was an almost perpendicular ridge that ended in a regular wall rising abruptly in a straight line. It still rose more than two hundred feet over the aeronauts.

      “In ten minutes,” said the doctor to himself, “our car will be dashed against those rocks unless we succeed in passing them!”

      “Well, doctor?” queried Joe.

      “Keep nothing but our pemmican, and throw out all the heavy meat.”

      Thereupon the balloon was again lightened by some fifty pounds, and it rose very perceptibly, but that was of little consequence, unless it got above the line of the mountain-tops. The situation was terrifying. The Victoria was rushing on with great rapidity. They could feel that she would be dashed to pieces—that the shock would be fearful.

      The doctor glanced around him in the car. It was nearly empty.

      “If needs be, Dick, hold yourself in readiness to throw over your firearms!”

      “Sacrifice my firearms?” repeated the sportsman, with intense feeling.

      “My friend, I ask it; it will be absolutely necessary!”

      “Samuel! Doctor!”

      “Your guns, and your stock of powder and ball might cost us our lives.”

      “We are close to it!” cried Joe.

      Sixty feet! The mountain still overtopped the balloon by sixty feet.

      Joe took the blankets and other coverings and tossed them out; then, without a word to Kennedy, he threw over several bags of bullets and lead.

      The balloon went up still higher; it surmounted the dangerous ridge, and the rays of the sun shone upon its uppermost extremity; but the car was still below the level of certain broken masses of rock, against which it would inevitably be dashed.

      “Kennedy! Kennedy! throw out your firearms, or we are lost!” shouted the doctor.

      “Wait, sir; wait one moment!” they heard Joe exclaim, and, looking around, they saw Joe disappear over the edge of the balloon.

      “Joe! Joe!” cried Kennedy.

      “Wretched man!” was the doctor’s agonized expression.

      The flat top of the mountain may have had about twenty feet in breadth at this point, and, on the other side, the slope presented a less declivity. The car just touched the level of this plane, which happened to be quite even, and it glided over a soil composed of sharp pebbles that grated as it passed.

      “We’re over it! we’re СКАЧАТЬ