Off on a Comet (36 page)

The cavern, however, was quite capable of being lighted by means of
lamps and lanterns. Among the stores were several barrels of oil and
a considerable quantity of spirits of wine, which might be burned when
required for cooking purposes. Moreover, it would be unnecessary for
them to confine themselves entirely to the seclusion of their gloomy
residence; well wrapped up, there would be nothing to prevent them
making occasional excursions both to the Hive and to the sea-shore. A
supply of fresh water would be constantly required; ice for this purpose
must be perpetually carried in from the coast, and it would be necessary
to arrange that everyone in turn should perform this office, as it would
be no sinecure to clamber up the sides of the crater for 900 feet, and
descend the same distance with a heavy burden.

But the emergency was great, and it was accordingly soon decided that
the little colony should forthwith take up its quarters in the cave.
After all, they said, they should hardly be much worse off than
thousands who annually winter in Arctic regions. On board the
whaling-vessels, and in the establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company,
such luxuries as separate cabins or sleeping-chambers are never thought
of; one large apartment, well heated and ventilated, with as few corners
as possible, is considered far more healthy; and on board ship the
entire hold, and in forts a single floor, is appropriated to this
purpose. The recollection of this fact served to reconcile them, in a
great degree, to the change to which they felt it requisite to submit.

Having remounted the ascent, they made the result of their exploration
known to the mass of the community, who received the tidings with a
sense of relief, and cordially accepted the scheme of the migration.

The first step was to clear the cavern of its accumulation of ashes,
and then the labor of removal commenced in earnest. Never was a task
undertaken with greater zest. The fear of being to a certainty frozen
to death if they remained where they were, was a stimulus that
made everyone put forth all his energies. Beds, furniture, cooking
utensils—first the stores of the
Dobryna
, then the cargo of the
tartan—all were carried down with the greatest alacrity, and the
diminished weight combined with the downhill route to make the labor
proceed with incredible briskness.

Although Professor Rosette yielded to the pressure of circumstances,
and allowed himself to be conducted to the lower regions, nothing would
induce him to allow his telescope to be carried underground; and as it
was undeniable that it would certainly be of no service deep down in the
bowels of the mountain, it was allowed to remain undisturbed upon its
tripod in the great hall of Nina's Hive.

As for Isaac Hakkabut, his outcry was beyond description lamentable.
Never, in the whole universe, had a merchant met with such reverses;
never had such a pitiable series of losses befallen an unfortunate man.
Regardless of the ridicule which his abject wretchedness excited, he
howled on still, and kept up an unending wail; but meanwhile he kept
a keen eye upon every article of his property, and amidst universal
laughter insisted on having every item registered in an inventory as it
was transferred to its appointed place of safety. Servadac considerately
allowed the whole of the cargo to be deposited in a hollow apart by
itself, over which the Jew was permitted to keep a watch as vigilant as
he pleased.

By the 10th the removal was accomplished. Rescued, at all events, from
the exposure to a perilous temperature of 60 degrees below zero, the
community was installed in its new home. The large cave was lighted by
the
Dobryna's
lamps, while several lanterns, suspended at intervals
along the acclivity that led to their deserted quarters above, gave
a weird picturesqueness to the scene, that might vie with any of the
graphic descriptions of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments."

"How do you like this, Nina?" said Ben Zoof.

"
Va bene!
" replied the child. "We are only living in the cellars
instead of upon the ground floor."

"We will try and make ourselves comfortable," said the orderly.

"Oh yes, we will be happy here," rejoined the child; "it is nice and
warm."

Although they were as careful as they could to conceal their misgivings
from the rest, Servadac and his two friends could not regard their
present situation without distrust. When alone, they would frequently
ask each other what would become of them all, if the volcanic heat
should really be subsiding, or if some unexpected perturbation should
retard the course of the comet, and compel them to an indefinitely
prolonged residence in their grim abode. It was scarcely likely that the
comet could supply the fuel of which ere long they would be in urgent
need. Who could expect to find coal in the bowels of Gallia,—coal,
which is the residuum of ancient forests mineralized by the lapse of
ages? Would not the lava-cinders exhumed from the extinct volcano be
their last poor resource?

"Keep up your spirits, my friends," said Servadac; "we have plenty of
time before us at present. Let us hope that as fresh difficulties arise,
fresh ways of escape will open. Never despair!"

"True," said the count; "it is an old saying that 'Necessity is the
mother of invention.' Besides, I should think it very unlikely that the
internal heat will fail us now before the summer."

The lieutenant declared that he entertained the same hope. As the reason
of his opinion he alleged that the combustion of the eruptive matter
was most probably of quite recent origin, because the comet before
its collision with the earth had possessed no atmosphere, and that
consequently no oxygen could have penetrated to its interior.

"Most likely you are right," replied the count; "and so far from
dreading a failure of the internal heat, I am not quite sure that we may
not be exposed to a more terrible calamity still?"

"What?" asked Servadac.

"The calamity of the eruption breaking out suddenly again, and taking us
by surprise."

"Heavens!" cried the captain, "we will not think of that."

"The outbreak may happen again," said the lieutenant, calmly; "but
it will be our fault, our own lack of vigilance, if we are taken by
surprise." And so the conversation dropped.

The 15th of January dawned; and the comet was 220,000,000 leagues from
the sun.

Gallia had reached its aphelion.

Henceforth, then, with a velocity ever increasing, Gallia would
re-approach the sun.

Except the thirteen Englishmen who had been left at Gibraltar, every
living creature had taken refuge in the dark abyss of the volcano's
crater.

And with those Englishmen, how had it fared?

"Far better than with ourselves," was the sentiment that would have
been universally accepted in Nina's Hive. And there was every reason
to conjecture that so it was. The party at Gibraltar, they all agreed,
would not, like themselves, have been compelled to have recourse to
a stream of lava for their supply of heat; they, no doubt, had had
abundance of fuel as well as food; and in their solid casemate, with its
substantial walls, they would find ample shelter from the rigor of the
cold. The time would have been passed at least in comfort, and perhaps
in contentment; and Colonel Murphy and Major Oliphant would have had
leisure more than sufficient for solving the most abstruse problems of
the chess-board. All of them, too, would be happy in the confidence that
when the time should come, England would have full meed of praise to
award to the gallant soldiers who had adhered so well and so manfully to
their post.

It did, indeed, more than once occur to the minds both of Servadac
and his friends that, if their condition should become one of extreme
emergency, they might, as a last resource, betake themselves to
Gibraltar, and there seek a refuge; but their former reception had
not been of the kindest, and they were little disposed to renew an
acquaintanceship that was marked by so little cordiality. Not in the
least that they would expect to meet with any inhospitable rebuff. Far
from that; they knew well enough that Englishmen, whatever their faults,
would be the last to abandon their fellow-creatures in the hour of
distress. Nevertheless, except the necessity became far more urgent than
it had hitherto proved, they resolved to endeavor to remain in their
present quarters. Up till this time no casualties had diminished
their original number, but to undertake so long a journey across that
unsheltered expanse of ice could scarcely fail to result in the loss of
some of their party.

However great was the desire to find a retreat for every living thing
in the deep hollow of the crater, it was found necessary to slaughter
almost all the domestic animals before the removal of the community from
Nina's Hive. To have stabled them all in the cavern below would have
been quite impossible, whilst to have left them in the upper galleries
would only have been to abandon them to a cruel death; and since meat
could be preserved for an indefinite time in the original store-places,
now colder than ever, the expedient of killing the animals seemed to
recommend itself as equally prudent and humane.

Naturally the captain and Ben Zoof were most anxious that their favorite
horses should be saved, and accordingly, by dint of the greatest care,
all difficulties in the way were overcome, and Zephyr and Galette were
conducted down the crater, where they were installed in a large hole and
provided with forage, which was still abundant.

Birds, subsisting only on scraps thrown out to them did not cease to
follow the population in its migration, and so numerous did they become
that multitudes of them had repeatedly to be destroyed.

The general re-arrangement of the new residence was no easy business,
and occupied so much time that the end of January arrived before they
could be said to be fairly settled. And then began a life of dreary
monotony. Then seemed to creep over everyone a kind of moral torpor
as well as physical lassitude, which Servadac, the count, and the
lieutenant did their best not only to combat in themselves, but
to counteract in the general community. They provided a variety of
intellectual pursuits; they instituted debates in which everybody was
encouraged to take part; they read aloud, and explained extracts from
the elementary manuals of science, or from the books of adventurous
travel which their library supplied; and Russians and Spaniards, day
after day, might be seen gathered round the large table, giving their
best attention to instruction which should send them back to Mother
Earth less ignorant than they had left her.

Selfish and morose, Hakkabut could never be induced to be present
at these social gatherings. He was far too much occupied in his own
appropriated corner, either in conning his accounts, or in counting his
money. Altogether, with what he had before, he now possessed the round
sum of 150,000 francs, half of which was in sterling gold; but nothing
could give him any satisfaction while he knew that the days were
passing, and that he was denied the opportunity of putting out his
capital in advantageous investments, or securing a proper interest.

Neither did Palmyrin Rosette find leisure to take any share in the
mutual intercourse. His occupation was far too absorbing for him to
suffer it to be interrupted, and to him, living as he did perpetually in
a world of figures, the winter days seemed neither long nor wearisome.
Having ascertained every possible particular about his comet, he was now
devoting himself with equal ardor to the analysis of all the properties
of the satellite Nerina, to which he appeared to assert the same claim
of proprietorship.

In order to investigate Nerina it was indispensable that he should make
several actual observations at various points of the orbit; and for this
purpose he repeatedly made his way up to the grotto above, where, in
spite of the extreme severity of the cold, he would persevere in the use
of his telescope till he was all but paralyzed. But what he felt more
than anything was the want of some retired apartment, where he could
pursue his studies without hindrance or intrusion.

It was about the beginning of February, when the professor brought his
complaint to Captain Servadac, and begged him to assign him a chamber,
no matter how small, in which he should be free to carry on his task in
silence and without molestation. So readily did Servadac promise to do
everything in his power to provide him with the accommodation for which
he asked, that the professor was put into such a manifest good temper
that the captain ventured to speak upon the matter that was ever
uppermost in his mind.

"I do not mean," he began timidly, "to cast the least imputation of
inaccuracy upon any of your calculations, but would you allow me, my
dear professor, to suggest that you should revise your estimate of the
duration of Gallia's period of revolution. It is so important, you know,
so all important; the difference of one half minute, you know, would so
certainly mar the expectation of reunion with the earth—"

And seeing a cloud gathering on Rosette's face, he added:

"I am sure Lieutenant Procope would be only too happy to render you any
assistance in the revision."

"Sir," said the professor, bridling up, "I want no assistant; my
calculations want no revision. I never make an error. I have made my
reckoning as far as Gallia is concerned. I am now making a like estimate
of the elements of Nerina."

Conscious how impolitic it would be to press this matter further, the
captain casually remarked that he should have supposed that all the
elements of Nerina had been calculated long since by astronomers on the
earth. It was about as unlucky a speech as he could possibly have made.
The professor glared at him fiercely.