Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne (audio ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: Jules Verne
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At length Joe, continuing his recital, arrived at the point where, sinking in the swamp, he had uttered a last cry of despair.
âI thought I was gone,â said he, âand as you came right into my mind, I made a hard fight for it. How, I couldnât tell youâbut Iâd made up my mind that I wouldnât go under without knowing why. Just then, I sawâtwo or three feet from meâwhat do you think? the end of a rope that had been fresh cut; so I took leave to make another jerk, and, by hook or by crook, I got to the rope. When I pulled, it didnât give; so I pulled again and hauled away and there I was on dry ground! At the end of the rope, I found an anchor! Ah, master, Iâve a right to call that the anchor of safety, anyhow, if you have no objection. I knew it again! It was the anchor of the Victoria! You had grounded there! So I followed the direction of the rope and that gave me your direction, and, after trying hard a few times more, I got out of the swamp. I had got my strength back with my spunk, and I walked on part of the night away from the lake, until I got to the edge of a very big wood. There I saw a fenced-in place, where some horses were grazing, without thinking of any harm. Now, there are times when everybody knows how to ride a horse, are there not, doctor? So I didnât spend much time thinking about it, but jumped right on the back of one of those innocent animals and away we went galloping north as fast as our legs could carry us. I neednât tell you about the towns that I didnât see nor the villages that I took good care to go around. No! I crossed the ploughed fields; I leaped the hedges; I scrambled over the fences; I dug my heels into my nag; I thrashed him; I fairly lifted the poor fellow off his feet! At last I got to the end of the tilled land. Good! There was the desert. âThat suits me!â said I, âfor I can see better ahead of me and farther too.â I was hoping all the time to see the balloon tacking about and waiting for me. But not a bit of it; and so, in about three hours, I go plump, like a fool, into a camp of Arabs! Whew! what a hunt that was! You see, Mr. Kennedy, a hunter donât know what a real hunt is until heâs been hunted himself! Still I advise him not to try it if he can keep out of it! My horse was so tired, he was ready to drop off his legs; they were close on me; I threw myself to the ground; then I jumped up again behind an Arab! I didnât mean the fellow any harm, and I hope he has no grudge against me for choking him, but I saw youâand you know the rest. The Victoria came on at my heels, and you caught me up flying, as a circus-rider does a ring. Wasnât I right in counting on you? Now, doctor, you see how simple all that was! Nothing more natural in the world! Iâm ready to begin over again, if it would be of any service to you. And besides, master, as I said a while ago, itâs not worth mentioning.â
âMy noble, gallant Joe!â said the doctor, with great feeling. âHeart of gold! we were not astray in trusting to your intelligence and skill.â
âPoh! doctor, one has only just to follow things along as they happen, and he can always work his way out of a scrape! The safest plan, you see, is to take matters as they come.â
While Joe was telling his experience, the balloon had rapidly passed over a long reach of country, and Kennedy soon pointed out on the horizon a collection of structures that looked like a town. The doctor glanced at his map and recognized the place as the large village of Tagelei, in the Damerghou country.
âHere,â said he, âwe come upon Dr. Barthâs route. It was at this place that he parted from his companions, Richardson and Overweg; the first was to follow the Zinder route, and the second that of Maradi; and you may remember that, of these three travellers, Barth was the only one who ever returned to Europe.â
âThen,â said Kennedy, following out on the map the direction of the Victoria, âwe are going due north.â
âDue north, Dick.â
âAnd donât that give you a little uneasiness?â
âWhy should it?â
âBecause that line leads to Tripoli, and over the Great Desert.â
âOh, we shall not go so far as that, my friendâat least, I hope not.â
âBut where do you expect to halt?â
âCome, Dick, donât you feel some curiosity to see Timbuctoo?â
âTimbuctoo?â
âCertainly,â said Joe; ânobody nowadays can think of making the trip to Africa without going to see Timbuctoo.â
âYou will be only the fifth or sixth European who has ever set eyes on that mysterious city.â
âHo, then, for Timbuctoo!â
âWell, then, let us try to get as far as between the seventeenth and eighteenth degrees of north latitude, and there we will seek a favorable wind to carry us westward.â
âGood!â said the hunter. âBut have we still far to go to the northward?â
âOne hundred and fifty miles at least.â
âIn that case,â said Kennedy, âIâll turn in and sleep a bit.â
âSleep, sir; sleep!â urged Joe. âAnd you, doctor, do the same yourself: you must have need of rest, for I made you keep watch a little out of time.â
The sportsman stretched himself under the awning; but Ferguson, who was not easily conquered by fatigue, remained at his post.
In about three hours the Victoria was crossing with extreme rapidity an expanse of stony country, with ranges of lofty, naked mountains of granitic formation at the base. A few isolated peaks attained the height of even four thousand feet. Giraffes, antelopes, and ostriches were seen running and bounding with marvellous agility in the midst of forests of acacias, mimosas, souahs, and date-trees. After the barrenness of the desert, vegetation was now resuming its empire. This was the country of the Kailouas, who veil their faces with a bandage of cotton, like their dangerous neighbors, the Touaregs.
At ten oâclock in the evening, after a splendid trip of two hundred and fifty miles, the Victoria halted over an important town. The moonlight revealed glimpses of one district half in ruins; and some pinnacles of mosques and minarets shot up here and there, glistening in the silvery rays. The doctor took a stellar observation, and discovered that he was in the latitude of Aghades.
This city, once the seat of an immense trade, was already falling into ruin when Dr. Barth visited it.
The Victoria, not being seen in the obscurity of night, descended about two miles above Aghades, in a field of millet. The night was calm, and began to break into dawn about three oâclock A.M.; while a light wind coaxed the balloon westward, and even a little toward the south.
Dr. Ferguson hastened to avail himself of such good fortune, and rapidly ascending resumed his aerial journey amid a long wake of golden morning sunshine.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTH.
A Rapid Passage.âPrudent Resolves.âCaravans in Sight.âIncessant Rains.â Goa.âThe Niger.âGolberry, Geoffroy, and Gray.âMungo Park.âLaing.â Rene Caillie.âClapperton.âJohn and Richard Lander.
The 17th of May passed tranquilly, without any remarkable incident; the desert gained upon them once more; a moderate wind bore the Victoria toward the southwest, and she never swerved to the right or to the left, but her shadow traced a perfectly straight line on the sand.
Before starting, the doctor had prudently renewed his stock of water, having feared that he should not be able to touch ground in these regions, infested as they are by the Aouelim-Minian Touaregs. The plateau, at an elevation of eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, sloped down toward the south. Our travellers, having crossed the Aghades route at Murzoukâa route often pressed by the feet of camelsâarrived that evening, in the sixteenth degree of north latitude, and four degrees fifty-five minutes east longitude, after having passed over one hundred and eighty miles of a long and monotonous dayâs journey.
During the day Joe dressed the last pieces of game, which had been only hastily prepared, and he served up for supper a mess of snipe, that were greatly relished. The wind continuing good, the doctor resolved to keep on during the night, the moon, still nearly at the full, illumining it with her radiance. The Victoria ascended to a height of five hundred feet, and, during her nocturnal trip of about sixty miles, the gentle slumbers of an infant would not have been disturbed by her motion.
On Sunday morning, the direction of the wind again changed, and it bore to the northwestward. A few crows were seen sweeping through the air, and, off on the horizon, a flock of vultures which, fortunately, however, kept at a distance.
The sight of these birds led Joe to compliment his master on the idea of having two balloons.
âWhere would we be,â said he, âwith only one balloon? The second balloon is like the life-boat to a ship; in case of wreck we could always take to it and escape.â
âYou are right, friend Joe,â said the doctor, âonly that my life-boat gives me some uneasiness. It is not so good as the main craft.â
âWhat do you mean by that, doctor?â asked Kennedy.
âI mean to say that the new Victoria is not so good as the old one. Whether it be that the stuff it is made of is too much worn, or that the heat of the spiral has melted the gutta-percha, I can observe a certain loss of gas. It donât amount to much thus far, but still it is noticeable. We have a tendency to sink, and, in order to keep our elevation, I am compelled to give greater dilation to the hydrogen.â
âThe deuce!â exclaimed Kennedy with concern; âI see no remedy for that.â
âThere is none, Dick, and that is why we must hasten our progress, and even avoid night halts.â
âAre we still far from the coast?â asked Joe.
âWhich coast, my boy? How are we to know whither chance will carry us? All that I can say is, that Timbuctoo is still about four hundred miles to the westward.
âAnd how long will it take us to get there?â
âShould the wind not carry us too far out of the way, I hope to reach that city by Tuesday evening.â
âThen,â remarked Joe, pointing to a long file of animals and men winding across the open desert, âwe shall arrive there sooner than that caravan.â
Ferguson and Kennedy leaned over and saw an immense cavalcade. There were at least one hundred and fifty camels of the kind that, for twelve mutkals of gold, or about twenty-five dollars, go from Timbuctoo to Tafilet with a load of five hundred pounds upon their backs. Each animal had dangling to its tail a bag to receive its excrement, the only fuel on which the caravans can depend when crossing the desert.
These Touareg camels are of the very best race. They can go from three to seven days without drinking, and for two without eating. Their speed surpasses that of the horse, and they obey with intelligence the voice of the khabir,
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