L. Frank Baum (13 page)

"Well, then, get your ropes, and we'll do the best we can," said the
boy.

They ran to the trees, around the trunks of which were clinging many
tendrils of greenish-brown vine which possessed remarkable strength.
With their knives they cut a long section of this vine, the ends of
which were then tied into loops large enough to permit the sailors to
sit in them comfortably. The connecting piece Rob padded with seaweed
gathered from the shore, to prevent its cutting into his shoulders.

"Now, then," he said, when all was ready, "take your places."

The sailors squatted in the loops, and Rob swung the vine over his
shoulders and turned the indicator of the traveling machine to "up."

As they slowly mounted into the sky the little sailor gave a squeal of
terror and clung to the boy's arm; but the other, although seemingly
anxious, sat quietly in his place and made no trouble.

"D—d—don't g—g—go so high!" stammered the little one, tremblingly;
"suppose we should f—f—fall!"

"Well, s'pose we should?" answered Rob, gruffly. "You couldn't drown
until you struck the water, so the higher we are the longer you'll live
in case of accident."

This phase of the question seemed to comfort the frightened fellow
somewhat; but, as he said, he had not a good head for heights, and so
continued to tremble in spite of his resolve to be brave.

The weight on Rob's shoulders was not so great as he had feared, the
traveling machine seeming to give a certain lightness and buoyancy to
everything that came into contact with its wearer.

As soon as he had reached a sufficient elevation to admit of good speed
he turned the indicator once more to the east and began moving rapidly
through the air, the shipwrecked sailors dangling at either side.

"This is aw—aw—awful!" gasped the little one.

"Say, you shut up!" commanded the boy, angrily. "If your friend was as
big a coward as you are I'd drop you both this minute. Let go my arm
and keep quiet, if you want to reach land alive."

The fellow whimpered a little, but managed to remain silent for several
minutes. Then he gave a sudden twitch and grabbed Rob's arm again.

"S'pose—s'pose the vine should break!" he moaned, a horrified look
upon his face.

"I've had about enough of this," said Rob, savagely. "If you haven't
any sense you don't deserve to live." He turned the indicator on the
dial of the machine and they began to descend rapidly.

The little fellow screamed with fear, but Rob paid no attention to him
until the feet of the two suspended sailors were actually dipping into
the waves, when he brought their progress to an abrupt halt.

"Wh—wh—what are you g—g—going to do?" gurgled the cowardly sailor.

"I'm going to feed you to the sharks—unless you promise to keep your
mouth shut," retorted the boy. "Now, then; decide at once! Which will
it be—sharks or silence?"

"I won't say a word—'pon my honor, I won't!" said the sailor
shudderingly.

"All right; remember your promise and we'll have no further trouble,"
remarked Rob, who had hard work to keep from laughing at the man's
abject terror.

Once more he ascended and continued the journey, and for several hours
they rode along swiftly and silently. Rob's shoulders were beginning
to ache with the continued tugging of the vine upon them, but the
thought that he was saving the lives of two unfortunate
fellow-creatures gave him strength and courage to persevere.

Night was falling when they first sighted land; a wild and seemingly
uninhabited stretch of the American coast. Rob made no effort to
select a landing place, for he was nearly worn out with a strain and
anxiety of the journey. He dropped his burden upon the brow of a high
bluff overlooking the sea and, casting the vine from his shoulders,
fell to the earth exhausted and half fainting.

When he had somewhat recovered, Rob sat up and looked around him. The
elder sailor was kneeling in earnest prayer, offering grateful thanks
for his escape from suffering and death. The younger one lay upon the
ground sobbing and still violently agitated by recollections of the
frightful experiences he had undergone. Although he did not show his
feelings as plainly as the men, the boy was none the less gratified at
having been instrumental in saving the lives of two fellow-beings.

The darkness was by this time rapidly enveloping them, so Rob asked his
companions to gather some brushwood and light a fire, which they
quickly did. The evening was cool for the time of year, and the heat
from the fire was cheering and grateful; so they all lay near the
glowing embers and fell fast asleep.

The sound of voices aroused Rob next morning, and on opening his eyes
and gazing around he saw several rudely dressed men approaching. The
two shipwrecked sailors were still sound asleep.

Rob stood up and waited for the strangers to draw near. They seemed to
be fishermen, and were much surprised at finding three people asleep
upon the bluff.

"Whar 'n thunder 'd ye come from?" asked the foremost fisherman, in a
surprised voice.

"From the sea," replied the boy. "My friends here are shipwrecked
sailors from the 'Cynthia Jane.'"

"But how'd ye make out to climb the bluff?" inquired a second
fisherman; "no one ever did it afore, as we knows on."

"Oh, that is a long story," replied the boy, evasively.

The two sailors had awakened and now saluted the new-comers. Soon they
were exchanging a running fire of questions and answers.

"Where are we?" Rob heard the little sailor ask.

"Coast of Oregon," was the reply. "We're about seven miles from Port
Orford by land an' about ten miles by sea."

"Do you live at Port Orford?" inquired the sailor.

"That's what we do, friend; an' if your party wants to join us we'll do
our best to make you comf'table, bein' as you're shipwrecked an' need
help."

Just then a loud laugh came from another group, where the elder sailor
had been trying to explain Rob's method of flying through the air.

"Laugh all you want to," said the sailor, sullenly; "it's true—ev'ry
word of it!"

"Mebbe you think it, friend," answered a big, good-natured fisherman;
"but it's well known that shipwrecked folks go crazy sometimes, an'
imagine strange things. Your mind seems clear enough in other ways, so
I advise you to try and forget your dreams about flyin'."

Rob now stepped forward and shook hands with the sailors.

"I see you have found friends," he said to them, "so I will leave you
and continue my journey, as I'm in something of a hurry."

Both sailors began to thank him profusely for their rescue, but he cut
them short.

"That's all right. Of course I couldn't leave you on that island to
starve to death, and I'm glad I was able to bring you away with me."

"But you threatened to drop me into the sea," remarked the little
sailor, in a grieved voice.

"So I did," said Rob, laughing; "but I wouldn't have done it for the
world—not even to have saved my own life. Good-by!"

He turned the indicator and mounted skyward, to the unbounded amazement
of the fishermen, who stared after him with round eyes and wide open
mouths.

"This sight will prove to them that the sailors are not crazy," he
thought, as he turned to the south and sped away from the bluff. "I
suppose those simple fishermen will never forget this wonderful
occurrence, and they'll probably make reg'lar heroes of the two men who
have crossed the Pacific through the air."

He followed the coast line, keeping but a short distance above the
earth, and after an hour's swift flight reached the city of San
Francisco.

His shoulders were sore and stiff from the heavy strain upon them of
the previous day, and he wished more than once that he had some of his
mother's household liniment to rub them with. Yet so great was his
delight at reaching once more his native land that all discomforts were
speedily forgotten.

Much as he would have enjoyed a day in the great metropolis of the
Pacific slope, Rob dared not delay longer than to take a general view
of the place, to note its handsome edifices and to wonder at the throng
of Chinese inhabiting one section of the town.

These things were much more plainly and quickly viewed by Rob from
above than by threading a way through the streets on foot; for he
looked down upon the city as a bird does, and covered miles with a
single glance.

Having satisfied his curiosity without attempting to alight, he turned
to the southeast and followed the peninsula as far as Palo Alto, where
he viewed the magnificent buildings of the university. Changing his
course to the east, he soon reached Mount Hamilton, and, being
attracted by the great tower of the Lick Observatory, he hovered over
it until he found he had attracted the excited gaze of the inhabitants,
who doubtless observed him very plainly through the big telescope.

But so unreal and seemingly impossible was the sight witnessed by the
learned astronomers that they have never ventured to make the incident
public, although long after the boy had darted away into the east they
argued together concerning the marvelous and incomprehensible vision.
Afterward they secretly engrossed the circumstance upon their records,
but resolved never to mention it in public, lest their wisdom and
veracity should be assailed by the skeptical.

Meantime Rob rose to a higher altitude, and sped swiftly across the
great continent. By noon he sighted Chicago, and after a brief
inspection of the place from the air determined to devote at least an
hour to forming the acquaintance of this most wonderful and
cosmopolitan city.

The Auditorium Tower, where "the weather man" sits to flash his reports
throughout the country, offered an inviting place for the boy to
alight. He dropped quietly upon the roof of the great building and
walked down the staircase until he reached the elevators, by means of
which he descended to the ground floor without exciting special
attention.

The eager rush and hurry of the people crowding the sidewalks impressed
Rob with the idea that they were all behind time and were trying hard
to catch up. He found it impossible to walk along comfortably without
being elbowed and pushed from side to side; so a half hour's
sight-seeing under such difficulties tired him greatly. It was a
beautiful afternoon, and finding himself upon the Lake Front, Rob
hunted up a vacant bench and sat down to rest.

Presently an elderly gentleman with a reserved and dignified appearance
and dressed in black took a seat next to the boy and drew a magazine
from his pocket. Rob saw that he opened it to an article on "The
Progress of Modern Science," in which he seemed greatly interested.

After a time the boy remembered that he was hungry, not having eaten a
tablet in more than twenty-four hours. So he took out the silver box
and ate one of the small, round disks it contained.

"What are those?" inquired the old gentleman in a soft voice. "You are
too young to be taking patent medicines."

"There are not medicines, exactly," answered the boy, with a smile.
"They are Concentrated Food Tablets, sorted with nourishment by means
of electricity. One of them furnishes a person with food for an entire
day."

The old gentleman stared at Rob a moment and then laid down his
magazine and took the box in his hands, examining the tablets curiously.

"Are these patented?" he asked.

"No," said Rob; "they are unknown to any one but myself."

"I will give you a half million dollars for the recipe to make them,"
said the gentleman.

"I fear I must refuse your offer," returned Rob, with a laugh.

"I'll make it a million," said the gentleman, coolly.

Rob shook his head.

"Money can't buy the recipe," he said; "for I don't know it myself."

"Couldn't the tablets be chemically analyzed, and the secret
discovered?" inquired the other.

"I don't know; but I'm not going to give any one the chance to try,"
declared the boy, firmly.

The old gentleman picked up his magazine without another word, and
resumed his reading.

For amusement Rob took the Record of Events from his pocket and began
looking at the scenes reflected from its polished plate.

Presently he became aware that the old gentleman was peering over his
shoulder with intense interest. General Funston was just then engaged
in capturing the rebel chief, Aguinaldo, and for a few moments both man
and boy observed the occurrence with rapt attention. As the scene was
replaced by one showing a secret tunnel of the Russian Nihilists, with
the conspirators carrying dynamite to a recess underneath the palace of
the Czar, the gentleman uttered a long sigh and asked:

"Will you sell that box?"

"No," answered Rob, shortly, and put it back into his pocket.

"I'll give you a million dollars to control the sale in Chicago alone,"
continued the gentleman, with an eager inflection in his smooth voice.

"You seem quite anxious to get rid of money," remarked Rob, carelessly.
"How much are you worth?"

"Personally?"

"Yes."

"Nothing at all, young man. I am not offering you my own money. But
with such inventions as you have exhibited I could easily secure
millions of capital. Suppose we form a trust, and place them upon the
market. We'll capitalize it for a hundred millions, and you can have a
quarter of the stock—twenty-five millions. That would keep you from
worrying about grocery bills."

"But I wouldn't need groceries if I had the tablets," said Rob,
laughing.

"True enough! But you could take life easily and read your newspaper
in comfort, without being in any hurry to get down town to business.
Twenty-five millions would bring you a cozy little income, if properly
invested."