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- Author: Roy Rockwood
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me hear from you when you reach Professor Henderson. I trust
nothing has happened to him. He is too great a scientist for us
to lose.”
WASHINGTON MEETS THE BOYS
All thoughts of experiments were driven from the minds of Jack
and Mark by the telegram. They imagined that something had
happened to their old friend, and it worried them. If he was
dangerously hurt, as might be, for he was constantly experimenting
in a small way, it would mean that a great change must take place
in their lives.
“What do you suppose can have happened?” asked Mark, as he and
Jack went to their rooms to get ready to leave the college.
“I haven’t the least idea. Maybe he wants us to go on another
trip.”
Mark finished packing, and Jack was not far behind him. Then the
lads went to the railroad station, where they purchased tickets
for home and were soon on a train. On the journey they could not
help but refer occasionally to the telegram, though Jack kept
insisting that nothing so serious had happened. Mark was not
quite in such good spirits.
“Well, here we are,” announced Jack, about three hours later, as
the train pulled into a small station. “And there’s Washington
on the platform waiting for us.”
Jack hurried out of the car, followed by Mark.
“Hello, Wash!” cried the fat lad. “How are you? Catch this
valise!” and he threw it to the colored man before the train had
come to a stop. Washington deftly caught the grip, though he had
to make a quick movement to accomplish it.
“I ‘clar t’ gracious!” he exclaimed. “Dat suttinly am a most
inconsequential mannah in which to project a transmigatory object
in contiguousness to mah predistination.”
“Whoa, there!” cried Jack. “Better take two bites at that,
Wash!”
“Dat’s all right, Massa Jack,” answered the colored man. “I’se
glad to see yo’, an’ I suttinly hopes dat de transubstantiationableness
ob my—”
“Wow!” cried Jack. “Say that over again, and say it slow.”
“Don’t yo’ foregather mah excitability?” asked the colored man
rather anxiously.
“Yes, I guess so. What’s the answer? How’s the professor?
How’s Andy? What’s the matter? Why did he send for us?”
“Wait! Wait! Please wait!” begged Washington. “One ob dem
interrogatorial projections at a time, Massa Jack. Where am
Massa Mark?”
“Here I am,” replied Jack’s chum, as he followed him out on the
platform of the train, which had come to a stop.
“Dats right!” exclaimed Washington. “Let me hab yo’ extended
article ob transportation an’ I’ll jest expidite it in—”
“I guess you mean it, all right,” interrupted Jack. “But what’s
up? Why did the professor send for us?”
“I doan’t know, Massa Jack.”
“You don’t know?”
“Nopy. He jest done gone tell me to send dat transmigatory
telegraph, an’ dat’s all.”
“But why does he want us? He’s not sick, is he?” asked Mark.
“Never felt bettah!” exclaimed Washington as he walked along the
street leading from the depot, a valise in either hand. “His
state ob health am equal to de sophistication ob de soporiferousness.”
“You mean he sleeps well?” questioned Jack.
“Dat’s what I done meant to convey to yo’, Massa Jack.”
“Well, why don’t you say it?” asked Mark.
“Dat’s jest what I done. I said—”
“Never mind,” interrupted Jack.
“Then you can’t tell us why the professor sent for us?”
“He’s got company,” went on Washington, as if he had just thought
of that.
“Company?” exclaimed both boys.
“Yyais.”
“Who is it?”
“Why, his name am Santell Roumann.”
“What an odd name!” commented Mark.
“Is he a doctor?” asked Jack.
“He speaks wid a Germannes aceetnuation,” said Washington. “He
suttinly uses de most ogilistic conglomerations—”
“If he can beat you, he’s a wonder,” said Jack. “But where did
he come from?”
“I ‘clar t’ goodness I doan’t know. All I knows is dat he jest
comed. One day he wasn’t dere, and come next day he was.”
“Does the professor know him?”
“Suah! He’s a friend ob de perfesser,” added Washington. “De
perfesser was pow’ful glade t’ see him.”
“‘Then he must be some scientist,” said Mark.
“Dat’s it! He’s chock full obscientistical bombasticness an’
labiodentalisms,” said the colored man.
“I guess the professor wanted us to meet him and learn something
that we couldn’t in college,” spoke Mark. “Well, we’ll soon be
there.”
“Yes,” assented Jack. “I want to find out what it’s all about.
Santell Roumann—that’s an odd name.”
“An’ he’s a mighty odd man,” supplemented Washington.
They reached the house a few minutes later, and went in the front
door. The sounds of two voices came from the library. One of
them was that of Professor Henderson. He was saying:
“I tell you it can’t be done! It is utterly impossible! It is
madness to think of such a terrible trip!”
“And I tell you it can be done—it shall be done and you are the
very man to accomplish it,” insisted the other. “You and your
young assistants will succeed. I know you will. You will go
with me, and we will make the longest journey on record.”
WONDERFUL PLAN
“I wonder what they can be talking about?” asked Mark of Jack, as
they paused outside the library door.
“I don t know, but it concerns us.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Because, didn’t you hear the stranger speak of us as the ‘young
assistants’? That’s us.”
“Very likely. But who is the man in with Professor Henderson,
and what is the wonderful journey he is talking about?”
“Dat gen’man in wid de perfesser am also a perfessor.” Explained
Washington in a whisper. “He’s Perfesser Santell Roumann. Now I
‘spects I’d better saggasiate mahself inter proximity t’ de
culinary reservation.”
“You mean you’ve got to go to the kitchen?” asked Jack with a
smile.
“Dat’s what I approximated to yo’,” replied the colored man.
“I wonder if we’d better go in now, or wait until Professor
Henderson is through talking to Mr. Roumann?” asked Mark.
“Yo’ am to go right in,” remarked Washington. “Dem’s de orders I
got when I went t’ de statione t’ meet yo’.”
“All right,” assented Jack. “Come on, Mark. We’ll find out
what’s wanted of us.”
The two boys entered the library, whence the voices of Professor
Henderson and Mr. Roumann could still be heard in earnest
discussion. Mr. Henderson looked up as his proteges advanced to
the middle of the apartment.
“Jack! Mark!” he exclaimed. “I am very glad you came so
promptly. I have something very important to communicate to
you—something that I hope will make up for the loss you suffer
in being taken away from college in the middle of the term. Or,
to be more correct, Mr. Roumann will impart most of the
information, for it is at his suggestion that I sent for you.”
“Are these the young assistants of whom you spoke?” asked the
other man, and the boys noticed that he was a big, burly German,
with a bushy, gray beard, and penetrating, blue eyes.
“This is Jack Darrow,” said the professor, indicating the stout
youth, “and the other is Mark Sampson. They have lived with me
several years now, and we have had many adventures together.”
“Ha! Hum! Yes!” murmured Mr. Roumann, then he said something in
German.
“I beg your pardon,” he went on quickly. “I have a habit of
talking to myself in my own language once in a while. What I
said was that I did not know the lads were so young. I am
somewhat apprehensive—”
“Do not be alarmed on the score of their youth,” cried Professor
Henderson. “I assure you that they have had a peculiar training,
and, in some scientific attainments, they know as much as I do.
You will not find them too young for our purpose, in case we
decide that the thing can be done.”
“I tell you it can be done, and it shall be done,” insisted Mr.
Roumann.
“I have my doubts,” went on Mr. Henderson.
Jack and Mark must have shown the wonder they felt at this talk
between the professor and his friend, for their guardian turned
to them and said:
“Boys, you must excuse me for not telling you at once the reason
why I sent for you. The truth is that Mr. Roumann has laid a
very strange proposition before me. It is so stupendous that I
hardly know whether to consider it or not. I want to talk with
you about it, and see what you think.”
“They will go with us, will they not?” asked Mr. Roumann.
“That is for them to say,” replied Mr. Henderson.
“Go where?” asked Jack, wondering if there was in prospect
another voyage to one of the Poles, or a trip to the interior of
the earth.
Professor Henderson looked at the other man. They were silent a
moment.
“Shall I tell them?” asked Mr. Henderson.
“Surely,” assented Mr. Roumann. “It all depends on you and them
whether we go or remain on earth.”
Jack started. Then there was a question of getting off the
earth. He began to think there might be exciting times for Mark
and himself.
“Mr. Roumann has proposed a wonderful plan to me,” went on
Professor Henderson. “It is nothing more nor less than a trip
to—”
“Mars!” burst out the blue-eyed man. “We are going to make the
most wonderful journey on record. A trip through space to the
planet Mars! Such an opportunity for reaching it, and proving
whether or not there is life on it, will not occur again for many
years. It is now but thirty-five millions of miles away from us.
Soon it will begin to recede, at the rate of twenty-eight
millions of miles a year, until it is two hundred and thirty four
millions of miles away from us. Then we may never be able to
reach it. Now, when it is but thirty-five millions of miles
away, we have a chance to get there.”
“I still believe it is impossible,” said Professor Henderson in a
low voice.
“Nothing is impossible!” exclaimed Mr. Roumann. “We shall go to
Mars! I say it! I who know! I who hold the secret of the
wonderful power that will take us there, and, what is more, bring
us back! I say it! We shall go!”
“Impossible!” said the professor again, shaking his head.
“Don’t say that word!” implored Mr. Roumann. “I will prove to
you that we shall go.”
“Go to Mars!” exclaimed Mark.
“Thirty-five million miles!” exclaimed Jack with awe in his
tones. “How can we ever cover that distance? No airship ever
made would do it.”
“Not an airship, perhaps,” said Mr. Roumann, “but something
else. I will tell you how—”
“Perhaps I had better explain from the beginning,” interrupted
Mr. Henderson.
“Maybe it will be better,” assented the other.
“Boys, be seated,” spoke their guardian, and Jack and Mark took
chairs. “Mr. Santell Roumann is an inventor, like myself,” went
on Mr. Henderson. “I have known him for several years, but I had
not seen him in a long time, until he called on me the other day
with his strange proposition. We used to attend the same
college, but since his graduation he has been experimenting in
Germany.”
“Where I discovered the
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