1500 Miles an Hour by Charles Dixon

Author:Charles Dixon [Dixon, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jovian Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

CHAPTER XIV.

~

ACROSS THE DESERT CHADOS.

WE AWOKE AT DAWN FEELING like new men, scarcely being able to realise the fact that we were free! The events of yesterday still lingered in our minds, like the remnants of a more than usually vivid dream. That all was real and true we could not bring ourselves to believe, so awful and inhuman seemed the doom we had so miraculously escaped. But the sun, as it rose in solemn splendour above the eastern edge of this strange world, soon dispelled our morbid thoughts and cheered us into activity. The view from the balcony of the Sirius was grand, though the country round us was sterile and desolate as the Valley of Death below Remagaloth, from which we had been delivered at yester e’en! But we had life and liberty; the future was once more before us, full of hopes and possibilities, and each one felt that the worst was over and brighter prospects were now before us.

We found everything in the Sirius precisely as we had left it. Evidently the people of Edos had shunned our carriage, and desired that we and all our belongings might be destroyed together. This was a fortunate circumstance for us, for had the Sirius been dismantled and pillaged we should have been in this wilderness without food. As soon as breakfast was over we consulted together as to what was best to be done.

“There is no help for it, my friends,” said the Doctor; “the Sirius is wrecked, and we shall have to leave her to her fate. Alas! she can give us safety no longer, and we may stay in her at our peril. We may be sure a search will be made for us, and that very quickly. Our only course is to abandon her, taking with us as many absolute necessaries as we can conveniently carry among us, and set off at once towards more fertile country. The future must take care of itself entirely, and we be guided further solely by circumstances.”

“But, Doctor, is there no hope of patching her up for a little time longer?”

“None, Graham; our motors are worn out; our generating material exhausted. We should require all the resources of a civilised community to make good her defects and replenish her power.”

“Then there is nothing for it but to do as you suggest, Doctor,” said Temple; and Graham reluctantly acquiesced.

While the Doctor and Sandy selected such articles as we were going to take, Temple and Graham went outside to reconnoitre, and to decide as to the best route we should take.

There was little choice to be made. Radiating in every direction from where we stood, the wide desert extended in one vast scene of ruinous waste. We stood on a wide uneven rock- and sand-strewn plain, which reached to the horizon on every side. Not a trace of vegetation could we detect sprouting from the bitter, ungenerous soil; not a stream or a pool cheered its wide expanse. All

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.