Lost on the Moon | Page 4

other books of this series,
Professor Amos Henderson and the two lads, Mark Sampson and Jack
Darrow, had undertaken many strange voyages together. Sometimes
they were accompanied by friends and assistants, while Washington
White, a sort of servant, helper, and man-of-all-work, and Andy Sudds,
an old hunter, always went with them.
Mark and Jack were orphans, who had been adopted by Professor
Henderson, who spent all his time making wonderful machines for
transportation, or conducting strange experiments.
The two boys had been rescued by Professor Henderson and
Washington White from a train wreck. Although both boys were badly
hurt, they were nursed back to health by the eminent scientist, who
soon learned to care for the lads as though they had been his own sons.
They aided the professor, as soon as they were able, in constructing an
airship, called the Electric Monarch, in which Professor Henderson
hoped to be able to reach the North Pole. The boys thoroughly enjoyed
the trip through the air, and had many thrills fighting the savage
Eskimos. Finally, they succeeded in passing over the exact spot of the
North Pole during a violent snowstorm.
Not satisfied with their experiences after conquering the North, the
adventurers set out for the Antarctic regions in a submarine boat. This
trip, even more remarkable than the first, took them to many strange
places in the South Atlantic. They were trapped for a time in the

Sargasso Sea, and they walked on the ocean floor in new diving suits,
one of the professor's marvelous inventions.
It was on the voyage to the south that, coming to the surface one day,
the adventurers saw a strange island in the Atlantic Ocean, far from the
coast of South America. On it was a great whirlpool, into which the
Porpoise, their submarine boat, was nearly drawn by the powerful
suction.
The chasm might lead to the center of the earth, it was suggested, and,
after thinking the matter over, on their return from the Antarctic,
Professor Henderson decided to build a craft in which they might solve
the mystery.
The details of the voyage they took in the Flying Mermaid, are told of
in the third volume, entitled "Five Thousand Miles Underground." The
Mermaid could sail on the water, or float in the air like a balloon. In
this craft the travellers descended into the centre of the earth, and had
many wonderful adventures. They nearly lost their lives, and had to
escape, after running through danger of the spouting water, leaving
their craft behind.
For some time they undertook no further voyages, and the two boys,
who lived with Professor Henderson in a small town on the coast of
Maine, were sent to attend the Universal Electrical and Chemical
College. Washington remained at home to minister to the wants of the
old professor, and Andy Sudds went off on occasional hunting trips.
But the spirit of adventure was still strong in the hearts of the boys and
the professor. One day, in the midst of some risky experiments at
college, Jack and Mark, as related in "Through Space to Mars,"
received a telegram from Professor Henderson, calling them home.
There they found their friend entertaining as a guest Professor Santell
Roumann, who was almost as celebrated as was Mr. Henderson, in the
matter of inventions.
Professor Roumann made a strange proposition. He said if the old

scientist and his young friends would build the proper kind of a
projectile, they could make a trip to the planet Mars, by means of a
wonderful motor, operated by a power called Etherium, of which Mr.
Roumann held the secret.
After some discussion, the projectile, called the Annihilator, from the
fact that it annihilated space, was begun. It was two hundred feet long,
ten feet in diameter in the middle, and shaped like a cigar. It consisted
of a double shell of strong metal, with a non-conducting gas between
the two sides.
Within it were various machines, besides the Etherium motor, which
would send the projectile along at the rate of one hundred miles a
second. This great speed was necessary in order to reach the planet
Mars, which, at the time our friends started for it, was about thirty- five
millions of miles away from this earth. It has since receded some
distance farther than this.
Finally all was in readiness for the start to Mars. Professor Roumann
wanted to prove that the planet was inhabited, and he also wanted to get
some of a peculiar substance, which he believed gave the planet its rosy
hue. He had an idea that it would prove of great value.
But, though every precaution was taken, the adventurers were not to get
away from the earth safely. Almost at the last minute, a crazy machinist,
named Fred Axtell,