Roy Rockwood - Through Space to Mars

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Through Space to Mars
Roy Rockwood
Table of Contents
Through Space to Mars......................................................................................................................................1
Roy Rockwood........................................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER I. TWO CHUMS...................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN...............................................................................................5
CHAPTER III. WASHINGTON MEETS THE BOYS..........................................................................9
CHAPTER IV. WONDERFUL PLAN..................................................................................................11
CHAPTER V. THE SECRET POWER.................................................................................................15
CHAPTER VI. BUILDING THE PROJECTILE..................................................................................18
CHAPTER VII. AT TERRIFIC SPEED...............................................................................................21
CHAPTER VIII. A MYSTERIOUS THEFT.........................................................................................24
CHAPTER IX. A CRAZY MACHINIST.............................................................................................29
CHAPTER X. WASHINGTON IS AFRAID........................................................................................32
CHAPTER XI. A STRANGE EXPLOSION.........................................................................................35
CHAPTER XII. THE ELECTRIC REMEDY.......................................................................................38
CHAPTER XIII. AN ALARMING THREAT......................................................................................41
CHAPTER XIV. OFF FOR MARS.......................................................................................................45
CHAPTER XV. SOMETHING ABOUT MARS..................................................................................49
CHAPTER XVI. THROUGH THE ETHER.........................................................................................51
CHAPTER XVII. A BREAKDOWN....................................................................................................55
CHAPTER XVIII. A VAIN SEARCH..................................................................................................57
CHAPTER XIX. ESCAPING A COMET.............................................................................................60
CHAPTER XX. THE MOTOR STOPS................................................................................................63
CHAPTER XXI. MARS AT LAST......................................................................................................67
CHAPTER XXII. QUEER PEOPLE.....................................................................................................71
CHAPTER XXIII. THE RED LIGHT...................................................................................................75
CHAPTER XXIV. A MARVELOUS SUMANCE...............................................................................79
CHAPTER XXV. SEEKING THE TREASURE..................................................................................82
CHAPTER XXVI. IN PERIL................................................................................................................85
CHAPTER XXVII. GETTING THE CARDITE...................................................................................88
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ATTACK.....................................................................................................90
CHAPTER XXIX. THE REPULSE......................................................................................................93
CHAPTER XXX. THE ESCAPE—CONCLUSION............................................................................97
Through Space to Mars
i
Through Space to Mars
Roy Rockwood
This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.
http://www.blackmask.com
• CHAPTER I. TWO CHUMS
• CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN
• CHAPTER III. WASHINGTON MEETS THE BOYS
• CHAPTER IV. WONDERFUL PLAN
• CHAPTER V. THE SECRET POWER
• CHAPTER VI. BUILDING THE PROJECTILE
• CHAPTER VII. AT TERRIFIC SPEED
• CHAPTER VIII. A MYSTERIOUS THEFT
• CHAPTER IX. A CRAZY MACHINIST
• CHAPTER X. WASHINGTON IS AFRAID
• CHAPTER XI. A STRANGE EXPLOSION
• CHAPTER XII. THE ELECTRIC REMEDY
• CHAPTER XIII. AN ALARMING THREAT
• CHAPTER XIV. OFF FOR MARS
• CHAPTER XV. SOMETHING ABOUT MARS
• CHAPTER XVI. THROUGH THE ETHER
• CHAPTER XVII. A BREAKDOWN
• CHAPTER XVIII. A VAIN SEARCH
• CHAPTER XIX. ESCAPING A COMET
• CHAPTER XX. THE MOTOR STOPS
• CHAPTER XXI. MARS AT LAST
• CHAPTER XXII. QUEER PEOPLE
• CHAPTER XXIII. THE RED LIGHT
• CHAPTER XXIV. A MARVELOUS SUMANCE
• CHAPTER XXV. SEEKING THE TREASURE
• CHAPTER XXVI. IN PERIL
• CHAPTER XXVII. GETTING THE CARDITE
• CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ATTACK
• CHAPTER XXIX. THE REPULSE
• CHAPTER XXX. THE ESCAPE—CONCLUSION
Scanned by Sean Pobuda (jpobuda@adelphia.net)
THROUGH SPACE TO MARS
Or the Longest Journey on Record
By Roy Rockwood
#4 in the “Great Marvel Series”
Through Space to Mars 1
CHAPTER I. TWO CHUMS
“Mark, hand me that test tube, will you, please?”
The lad who had made the request looked over at his companion, a boy of about his own age, who was on the
other side of the laboratory table.
“The big one, or the small one?” questioned Mark Sampson.
“The large one,” answered Jack Darrow. “I want to put plenty of the chemical in this time and give it a good
try.”
“Now be careful, Jack. You know what happened the last time.”
“You mean what nearly happened. The tube burst, but we didn't get hurt. I have to laugh when I think of the
way you ducked under the table. Ha, ha! It was awfully funny!”
“Humph! Maybe you think so, but I don't,” responded Mark with rather a serious air. “I noticed that you got
behind a chair.”
“Well, of course. I didn't want broken glass in my eyes. Come on, are you going to hand me that test tube, or
will I have to come and get it? We haven't much more time to−day.”
“Oh, here's the tube,” said Mark as he passed it over. “But please be careful, Jack.”
Jack measured out some black chemical that resembled gunpowder, and poured it into the test tube which
Mark handed him. Then he inserted in the opening a cork, from which extended a glass tube, to the outer end
of which was fastened a rubber pipe.
He paused in his experiment to laugh again.
“What are you making—laughing gas?” asked Mark.
“No. But—excuse me—ha, ha! I can't help laughing when I think of the way you ducked under the table the
other day.”
“Maybe you'll laugh on the other side of your countenance, as Washington White would say,” commented
Mark; “especially if that big tube bursts.”
“But it isn't going to burst.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, I worked out this experiment carefully. I've calculated just how strong the new gas will be, and—”
“Ah, that's just it. It's a new gas, and you've never yet succeeded in making it, have you?”
“No; but—”
“And it takes a different combination of chemicals to make it from any you ever experimented with before,
doesn't it?” asked Mark.
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER I. TWO CHUMS 2
“It does. But—”
“Yes, and I don't see how you can tell, with any amount of calculation, just how much force will develop
from those chemicals, as no one ever put them together before.”
“Well, maybe I can't,” admitted Jack. “But this tube is very strong, and even if it does break nothing very
serious can happen.”
“Unless the gas you expect to generate is stronger than you have any idea of.”
“Well, I'm going to do it. I've got half an hour before Professor Lenton and his class comes in, and that's time
enough. Here, just hold this rubber tube under this jar, will you? And be sure to keep the edge of the jar
below the surface of the water. I don't want any of the gas to escape.”
He handed Mark the end of the rubber tube, and the somewhat nervous student, who was helping his chum
Jack in the experiment, inserted it under the edge of a large bell−glass, the open mouth of which was placed
just under the surface of water in a shallow pan.
The two lads were students at the Universal Electrical and Chemical College. They stood high in their
classes, and were often allowed to conduct experiments on their own responsibility, this being one of those
occasions. Jack, who was somewhat older than his companion, was of a more adventurous turn of mind, and
was constantly trying new things. Not always safe ones, either, for often he had produced small explosions in
the laboratory of the college. Only minor damage had been done thus far, but, as Mark said, one could never
tell what was going to happen when Jack mixed certain things in test tubes and placed them over a spirit
lamp, or the flame of a Bunsen burner.
“Have you got that tube under the jar?” asked Jack as he lighted a large Bunsen flame.
“It's under,” answered Mark. “But say, what are you going to do in case you prove that your theory is right,
and that you can make a new kind of gas? What good will it be?”
“Lots of good. If I'm right, this will be the lightest gas ever made. Much lighter than hydrogen—”
“Lighter than the kind Professor Henderson made for use in the Flying Mermaid, in which we went to the
center of the earth?”
“No, I'm afraid I can't equal his gas; but then, no one can ever hope to. I'm going to make a new gas, though,
and I'll show you that it will be much lighter and more powerful than hydrogen.”
“More powerful, eh? Then I wish you'd have some one else hold this. I'm afraid the test tube will burst.”
“What if it does? It can't hurt you—very much. But here, since you're so nervous, I'll put a pile of books all
around the tube and the burner. Then, if it bursts, the books will prevent the pieces of glass from flying all
about. Does that satisfy you?” and Jack began heaping some books about the burner, over which he was
about to suspend the test tube containing the queer chemical.
“Yes,” returned Mark doubtfully. “I suppose it's all right—unless the books will be blown all over.”
“Well, I'll be jig−sawed!” exclaimed Jack with a laugh. “There's no satisfying you. You're too particular,
Mark.”
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER I. TWO CHUMS 3
“Maybe; but I don't want to get hurt.”
“You'll not be injured in the least. Look, you're quite a distance away, and even if it does explode and the
books are scattered away, it can't hurt much to be hit by one of these volumes. There, I'm all ready now. Hold
the tube firmly.”
He placed the test tube in a support, clamping it fast, so that it would be held steady over the flame. Then he
turned on more of the illuminating gas, which, coming through the Bunsen burner, was made intensely hot. A
little column of flame now enveloped the big test tube containing the powder.
There was a little crackling sound as the heat expanded the powder, and the end of the test tube became quite
red from the flame.
“That tube'll melt!” exclaimed Mark, peering over the pile of books. “It's too near the flame.”
“Guess you're right,” admitted Jack. “I'll raise it up a bit.”
He turned down the flame and elevated the tube slightly. Then he took a position where he could watch the
process of making what he hoped would be a new kind of gas. He wanted to be where he could see the vapor
beginning to collect in the top of the tube, pass off through the glass in the cork, and then through the little
rubber hose to the bell glass held by Mark. If the gas was generated too quickly, Jack knew he would have to
turn down the heat slightly.
The crackling sound continued. Then, as Jack watched, he saw a thick, yellowish vapor collecting in the top
of the test tube near the cork.
“It's coming!” he cried. “There's my new gas!”
“What's the name of it?” asked Mark.
“I haven't named it yet. I want to collect it in the jar and show it to Professor Lenton. He said he didn't believe
I could make it.”
The boys resumed their careful watching of the experiment. It was a nervous moment, for, from experience,
Mark knew you never could tell what would happen when Jack began to try new combinations of chemicals.
He was ready to drop down on an instant's warning, out of the way of flying missiles.
“See any bubbles in that pan of water yet?” cried Jack.
“No, not yet.”
“That's queer. The test tube is full of the yellow gas, and some ought to be over to where you are now. I'm
going to turn on some more heat.”
He increased the Bunsen flame. The crackling noise was louder. The test tube became a fiery red.
“It's bubbling now!” suddenly called Mark.
“That's good! The experiment is a success! I knew I could make it. Is any of the gas coming up in the glass
jar?”
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER I. TWO CHUMS 4
Mark bent over to make a closer examination. There were a few seconds of silence, broken only by the
roaring of the burner and the crackling of the black powder.
“Yes, there is vapor in the jar,” he said.
“Good! That's the stuff!” cried Jack. “Now I guess Professor Lenton will admit that I'm right.”
He turned the Bunsen flame up higher. A moment later he uttered a cry, for he saw the cork being forced
from the test tube. The pressure of the new gas was too much for it.
“Lookout!” cried Jack. “She's going up!”
Then followed a sharp explosion, and the laboratory seemed filled with fragments of broken glass and torn
books.
CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN
“There it goes! There it goes!” cried Mark, making a dive for the laboratory door, but slipping and sprawling
on the floor. “There it goes, Jack!”
“No; it's gone already!” cried Jack, who, even in the midst of danger and excitement, seemed to remain calm
and still to have his appreciation of it joke.
“Come on!” cried Mark as he scrambled to his feet. “We must get out of here, Jack!”
“What's the use now? It's all over.”
There was a tinkling sound, as fragments of the broken test tube, the bell−jar and other things began falling
about the room.
Mark was fumbling at the door of the laboratory, seeking to escape.
“Come on back,” said Jack. “It's all over. There's no more danger. We'll try it again.”
Just then one of the pile of books, that had been blown on an upper shelf, came down, landing on Mark's head.
“No danger?” cried Mark, trembling from excitement. “No danger? What do you call that?” and he pointed to
the books at his feet, while he rubbed his head ruefully.
“Well, there aren't any more,” observed Jack, with a look upward.
Just then the door opened, and an elderly gentleman, wearing spectacles, entered the laboratory. He seemed
much excited.
“What happened? Is any one hurt? Was there an explosion here?” he asked.
Then he saw the devastation on all sides—the broken glass, the scattered and torn books—and he noticed
Mark rubbing his head.
“There was—er—a slight explosion,” replied Jack, a faint smile spreading over his face.
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN 5
“Are you hurt?” the professor asked quickly, stepping over to Mark. “Shall I get a doctor?”
“A book hit him,” explained Jack.
“A book! Did a book explode?”
“No, sir. You see, I was making a new kind of gas, and Mark was helping me. He was afraid the test tube
would explode, so I piled books around it, and—”
“And it did blow up!” cried Mark, still rubbing his head. “The test tube, and the other tube, and the rubber
hose, and the bell−jar. I told you it would, Jack.”
“Then you weren't disappointed,” retorted Jack, this time with a broad smile. “I don't like to disappoint
people,” he added.
“What kind of gas was it, Darrow?” asked Professor Lenton.
“Well, I hadn't exactly named it yet,” answered the young inventor. “I was going to show it to you, and see
what you thought of it. It's the kind you said I couldn't make.”
“And did you make it?” asked the instructor grimly.
“Yes, sir—some.”
“Where is it?”
“It's—er—well, you can smell it,” replied Jack.
Sure enough, there was a strong, unpleasant odor in the laboratory, but that was usual in the college where all
sorts of experiments were constantly going on.
“Hum—yes,” admitted the professor. “I do perceive a new odor. But I'm glad neither of you was hurt, and the
damage doesn't seem to be great.”
“No, sir. It was my own apparatus I was using,” explained Jack. “I'll be more careful next time. I'll not put in
so much of the chemical.”
“I don't believe there had better be a 'next time' right away,” declared Mr. Lenton.
“The next attempt you make to invent a powerful gas, you had better generate it in something stronger than a
glass test tube. Use an iron retort.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Jack.
“And now you had better report for your geometry lesson,” went on the professor. “I need the laboratory now
for a class in physics. Just tell the janitor to come here and sweep up the broken glass. I am very glad neither
of you boys was seriously injured. You must be more careful next time.”
“Oh, Mark was careful enough,” said Jack. “It was all my fault. I didn't think the gas was quite so powerful.”
“All right,” answered the professor with a smile as Jack and Mark passed out on their way to another
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN 6
classroom.
The two lads, whom some of my readers have met before in the previous books of this series, were friends
who had become acquainted under peculiar circumstances. They were orphans, and, after having had many
trying experiences, each of them had left his cruel employers, and, unknown to each other previously, had
met in a certain village, where they were obliged to beg for food. They decided to cast their lots together, and,
boarding a freight train, started West.
The train, as told in the first volume to this series, called “Through the Air to the North Pole,” was wrecked
near a place where a certain Professor Amos Henderson, and his colored helper, Washington White, lived.
Mr. Henderson was a learned scientist who was constantly building new wonderful machines. He was
working on an airship, in which to set out and locate the North Pole, when he discovered Jack and Mark,
injured in the freight wreck. He and Washington White carried the lads to the inventor's workshop, and there
the boys recovered. When they were well enough, the professor invited them to live with him, and, more than
that, to take a trip with him North Pole.
They went, in company with Washington and an old hunter, named Andy Sudds, and some other men, whom
the professor took along to help him.
Many adventures befell the party. They had battles with wild beasts in the far north, and were attacked by
savage Esquimaux. Once they were caught in a terrible storm. They actually passed over the exact location of
the North Pole, and Professor Henderson made some interesting scientific observations.
In the second volume of this series, entitled “Under the Ocean to the South Pole,” Professor Henderson, Jack,
Mark, Washington and old Andy Sudds, made even a more remarkable trip. The professor had a theory that
there was an open sea at the South Pole, and he wanted to prove it. He decided that the best way to get there
was to go under the ocean in a submarine boat, and he and the boys built a very fine, craft, called the
Porpoise, which was capable of being propelled under water at a great depth.
The voyagers had rather a hard time of it. They were caught in a great sea of Sargasso grass, monstrous
suckers held the boat in immense arms, and it required hard fighting to get free. The boys and the others had
the novel experience of walking about on the bottom of the sea in new kinds of diving suits invented by the
professor.
On their journey to the South Pole, the adventurers came upon a strange island in the Atlantic, far from the
coast of South America. On it was a great whirlpool, into which the Porpoise was nearly sucked by a
powerful current. They managed to escape, and had a glimpse of unfathomable depths. They passed on, but
could not forget the strange hole in the island.
Mark suggested that it might lead to the center of the earth, which is hollow, according to some scientists, and
after some consideration, Professor Henderson, on his return from the South Pole, decided to go down the
immense shaft.
To do this required a different kind of vessel from any he had yet built. He would need one that could sail on
the water, and yet float in the air like a balloon or aeroplane.
How he built this queer craft and took a most remarkable voyage, you will find set down in the third book of
this series, entitled “Five Thousand Miles Underground.”
In their new craft, called the Flying Mermaid, the professor, the boys, Washington and Andy, sailed until they
came to the great shaft leading downward. Then the ship rose in the air and descended through clouds of
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN 7
vapor. After many perils they reached the center of the earth, where they found a strange race of beings.
One day, to their horror, an earthquake dosed the shaft by which they had come to the center of the earth. The
boys were in despair of ever getting to the surface again, but the professor had been prepared for this
emergency, and he had built a strong cylinder, into which all the travelers placed themselves. Then it was
projected into a powerful upward shooting column of water, which Professor Henderson hoped would take
them to the surface of the earth. Nor was he mistaken. They had a terrible journey, but came safely out of it.
They opened the cylinder, to find themselves floating on the sea, and they were rescued by a passing vessel.
Of course, they had abandoned the Mermaid, leaving the craft in the center of the earth, but they had brought
back with them some valuable diamonds, which formed their fortune.
This ended, for a time, the experiments of the professor, who decided to settle down to a quiet life, and write
out the observations he had made on the three voyages. The boys wanted to get an education, and, investing
their share from the sale of the diamonds, they took up a course at the Universal Electrical and Chemical
College. Each had an ambition to become as great an inventor as was Professor Henderson, with whom they
continued to live in a small city on the Maine coast. Washington White and Andy Sudds also dwelt with the
professor, Andy going off on occasional hunting trips, and Washington acting as a sort of body servant to Mr.
Henderson.
Jack and Mark had completed one term at the college, and were in the midst of the second when this story
opens.
They had not lost their love for making queer voyages, and one of their greatest desires was to help the
professor turn out a craft even more wonderful than the Electric Monarch, the Porpoise or the Flying
Mermaid. It was in this connection that Jack was experimenting on the new gas, when the slight accident
happened.
“Are you going to try that again?” asked Mark, as he and his chum walked along to their geometry class.
“Sure,” replied Jack. “I want that to succeed. I know I am on the right track.”
“You came near getting blown off the track,” remarked his companion, which was as near to a joke as he ever
would come, for, though Jack was jolly and full of fun, Mark was more serious, inclined to take a sterner
view of life.
“Oh, I'll succeed yet!” exclaimed Jack. “And when I do—you'll see something—that's all.”
“And feel it, too,” added Mark, putting his hand on his head, the book having raised quite a lump.
It was several days after this before the boys had the chance to work alone in the laboratory again, and Jack
had to promise not to try his experiment with the new gas before this privilege was granted him.
“Want any help?” asked Dick Jenfer, another student, as he saw Jack and Mark enter the laboratory.
“Yes, if you want to hold a test tube for me,” answered Jack. “I'm going to try a new way of making oxygen.”
“No, thanks! Not for mine!” exclaimed Dick as he turned away. “I don't want to be around when you try your
new experiments. The old way of making oxygen is good enough for me.”
“Well, I have a new scheme,” went on Jack.
Through Space to Mars
CHAPTER II. JACK MAKES OXYGEN 8
摘要：

ThroughSpacetoMarsRoyRockwoodTableofContentsThroughSpacetoMars......................................................................................................................................1RoyRockwood...............................................................................................

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