Again those involuntary riders of the tornado were tossed violently to and fro in their seemingly frail ship, while the balloon itself appeared threatened with instant dissolution, those eddying currents growing broken and far less regular in action, while the fierce tumult grew in sound and volume a thousandfold.
All around the air-ship now showed ugly debris, limbs and boughs and even whole trunks of giant trees being whirled upward and outward, each moment menacing the vessel with total destruction, yet as frequently vanishing without infringing seriously upon their curious prison.
Sand and dirt and fragments of shattered rock whistled by in an apparently unending shower, only with reversed motion, flying upward in place of shooting downward to earth itself.
Speech was utterly impossible under the circumstances, and the fate-tossed voyagers could only cling fast to the hand-rail, and hold those precious air-tubes in readiness for the worst.
Never before had either of the trio heard such a deafening crash and uproar, and little wonder if they thought this surely must herald the crack of doom!
The tornado seemed to reel backward, as though repulsed by an immovable obstacle, and then, while the din was a bit less deafening, Professor Featherwit contrived to make himself heard, through screaming at the top of his voice:
"The mountain range, I fancy! It's a battle to the--"That sentence was perforce left incomplete, since the storm-demon gave another mad plunge to renew the battle, bringing on a repetition of that drunken swaying so upsetting to both mind and body.
A few seconds thus, then the tornado conquered, or else rose higher in partial defeat, for their progress was resumed, and comparative quiet reigned again.
The higher clouds curved backward, affording a wider view of the heavens far above, and, as all eyes turned instinctively in that direction, Bruno involuntarily exclaimed:
"Still daylight! I thought--how long has this lasted?""It's the middle o' next week; no less!" positively affirmed his brother. "Don't tell me! We've been in here a solid month, by my watch!"Instead of making reply such as might have been expected from one of his mathematical exactness, Professor Featherwit gave a cry of dismay, while hurriedly moving to and fro in their contracted quarters, for the time being forgetful of all other than this, his great loss.
"What is it, uncle Phaeton?" asked Bruno, rising to his knees in natural anxiety. "Surely nothing worse than has already happened to us?""Worse? What could be worse than losing for ever--the camera, boys; where is the camera, I ask you?"Certainly not where the professor was looking, and even as he roared forth that query, his heart told him the sad truth; past doubting, the instrument upon whose aid he relied to place upon record these marvellous facts, so that all mankind might see and have full faith, was lost,--thrown from the aerostat, to meet with certain destruction, when the vessel first came within the tornado's terrible clutch.
"Gone,--lost,--and now who will believe that we ever--oh, this is enough to crush one's very soul!" mourned the professor, throwing up his hands, and sinking back to the floor of the flying-machine in a limp and disheartened heap for the time being.
Neither Bruno nor Waldo could fully appreciate that grief, since thoughts and care for self were still the ruling passion with both; but once more they were called upon to do battle with the swaying of the winds, and once again were they saved only through that life-giving cylinder of compressed air.
Presently, the heart-broken professor rallied, as was his nature, and, with a visible effort putting his great loss behind him, endeavoured to cheer up his comrades in peril.
"So far we have passed through all danger without receiving material injury,--to ourselves, I mean,--and surely it is not too much to hope for eventual escape?" he said, earnestly, pressing the hands of his nephews, by way of additional encouragement.
"Yes," hesitated Bruno, with an involuntary shiver, as he glanced around them upon those furiously boiling clouds, then cast an eye upward, towards yonder clear sky. "Yes, but--in what manner?""What'll we do when the cyclone goes bu'st?" cut in Waldo, with disagreeable bluntness. "It can't go on for ever, and when it splits up,--where will we be then?""I wish it lay within my power to give you full assurance on all points, my dear boys," the professor made reply. "I only wish Icould ensure your perfect safety by giving my own poor remnant of life--""No, no, uncle Phaeton!" cried the brothers, in a single breath.
"How cheerfully, if I only might!" insisted the professor, his homely face wearing an expression of blended regret and unbounded affection. "But for me you would never have encountered these perils, nor ever--"Again he was interrupted by the brothers, and forced to leave that regret unspoken to the end.
"Only for you, uncle Phaeton, what would have become of us when we were left without parents, home, fortune? Only for you, taking us in and treating us as though of your own flesh and blood--""As you are, my good lads! Let it pass, then, but I must say that I do wish--well, well, let it pass, then!"A brief silence, which was spent in gripping hands and with eyes giving pledges of love and undying confidence; then Professor Featherwit spoke again, in an entirely different vein.
"If nothing else, we have exploded one fallacy which has never met with contradiction, so far as my poor knowledge goes.""And that is--what, uncle Phaeton?"
