and now,' declared young darrow, promptly. 'so!

i ve got the cosmolene smeared on

it already. there! that s the
last of it. now a match, andy.' 'joshua!' grumbled the hunter, 'it is good-bye, i
guess!' the match flared up.
jack touched it to the greasy woolen cloth. it began to burn brightly and steadily
at once. 'now, you all
hunt around for the things we dropped. if we can find them we ll push out right
away for the
camp and the professor. you know he ll be worried about us, just as we are worried
about him!' with
the light of the improvised torch flaring about them they saw what manner of place
they were in. the huge
trunk of the fallen tree had not entirely shut them in the hole. mark got in
position to climb out
beside the tree-trunk. there was a small, tough root sticking out of the bank above
his head. he leaped to
catch it with one hand, intending to scramble out by its aid. and then the very
queerest thing happened to
him that could be imagined, the spring he took shot him up through the hole like an
arrow taking flight.
he never touched the root, but over-shot the mark and disappeared with a loud
scream of amazement and alarm into
the outer world, 'somebody grabbed him!' shouted andy sudds. 'oh, lawsy-massy-
gollyation!' yelped the frightened darkey, 'massa mark done been kerried
up, suah nuff! i tole youse disher was de end ob de worl .' but jack, followed by
the old
hunter, sprang to the opening. how light they were upon their feet! the experience
of moving shot this surprising thought
through jack darrow s mind: 'i m as light as a feather. i have lost half my weight,
i declare
i how can that be possible?' andy sudds was evidently disturbed by the same
thought. he cried: 'somebody holt onto
me! i m going up!' he did actually bump his head upon the tree trunk above them.
but the next
moment jack scrambled through the opening, light and all, and came out upon the
open ground. 'i m here, jack!
i m here!' cried mark. 'but what s happened to me?' 'whatever it is, it has
happened to us all,'
returned his chum, 'i seem to have overcome a good bit of the law of gravitation.
never felt so light
in my heels in all my life before.' 'what can it mean?' whispered mark in his chum
s ear. 'it
s magic!' 'you ve got me,' admitted jack. 'i m not trying to explain it. but i know
that the
air pressure on me isn t as great as it was. i feel like we did when we were on
the moon.' 'something awful has happened,' suggested mark, his tone still worried,
'we can be sure of that,' andy sudds
said, 'what shall we do?' 'find that stuff we were carrying and get back to the
professor with it,' said
jack, briefly. 'here! i see the storage battery lamp--or, one of them at least.'
mark at the same time stooped
to pick up two of the lost rods. jack found the lamp to be in good order and gave
it
to andy. the torch was rapidly becoming exhausted. 'come, washington,' urged jack,
'you hunt around, too. we must find the
parts of the airship we dropped. if we don t find them we ll never get away from
this place.'
'and is we gotter go in de snowbird, massa jack?' queried the darkey. 'has we jest
got ter go in dat
flyin contraption? gollyation! dis chile hoped de walkin would be good out oh
alaska. he an buttsy jest erbout made
up deir minds dat dey wouldn t fly no mo . fac is, i had some idea ob clippin
buttsy
s wings so dat he couldn t fly no mo !' 'you can walk if you want to,' said mark,
crossly; 'but i want to get away from this part of the country just as soon as ever
i can.
if the flying machine was ready i d only wait long enough to get the professor and
then we d
start.' 'guess we re with you there, mark,' agreed his chum, emphatically.
meanwhile they were all scrambling about for the
parts of the machine that had escaped them when the awful blast had knocked them
into the hole and deprived
them of consciousness. fortunately none of the missing parts was very small and in
twenty minutes of close scrutiny every
piece was assembled. they did not find the second hand lamp, however. 'now we must
hurry back to the professor,'
jack urged, '! know he will be dreadfully worried.' 'do you notice that it s
getting lighter, boys?' remarked andy
sudds, 'i believe you!' cried mark, 'the ash has stopped falling, too.' 'i know
that the air is a whole
lot clearer,' rejoined his chum. 'and it s colder--or is it rare? doesn t it seem
like mountain air, mark?'
'we ve been half-stifled for so long i reckon the change to purer air is what makes
it seem so
peculiar,' returned his friend. yet mark was puzzled--indeed they all were more or
less disturbed by the strange feeling that
possessed them. unless washington white was an exception. the darkey went along
blithely despite his expressed distaste for their surroundings,
and as they came to the lower end of the grove of big trees, he began to run. it
had
grown lighter all the time as they advanced. the cloud that had hidden the sun
seemed to be rolled away
like a scroll. the party could see all about them. the ashes lay from two to eight
inches deep on
the ground. plants and shrubs were covered with the volcanic dust, and it was
shaken from the trees as they
passed. washington white bounded along like a rubber ball. he came to the plateau
that overlooked the sheltered camp of
the oil hunter. as the darkness retreated across the valley, the derrick and the
shanties belonging to phineas roebach