ATALANTA

OR

TWELVE MONTHS IN THE

EVENING STAR

BY

CHARLES NAPIER RICHARDS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

BRIGHTON

H. & C. TREACHER, 1 NORTH STREET

LONDON

SIMPKIN MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO., LTD.

STATIONERS HALL COURT, E.C.

[Pg 5]

CHAPTER I THE GATHERING OF THE FRIENDS

“I say, you fellows, can any of you oblige by throwing an illuminating light on the movements of old Carmichael?”

The question was addressed by Maurice Sheldon to a party of undergraduates assembled in his college rooms in Cambridge, one lazy afternoon near the end of the summer term.

“Well,” said Gilbert Rice, after some moments of acute reflection, “the dear old owl has taken advantage of the close of his lecture course to take himself off to some unknown hole in Northumberland called ‘Newbiggin-on-the-Sea,’ I believe.”

“Anxious to turn over a new leaf and make a new beginning,” ejaculated Joe Vallance.

“Why on earth did he stop there and not go on to Edinburgh or to the Highlands like any sensible man?” queried Sheldon.

“I was dangerously near suggesting that he wasn’t one, but I see Abercromby getting ready a missile to shy at my head,” answered Gilbert Rice, “but I don’t mind saying Carmichael is an awfully decent sort when you really get to know him.”

[Pg 8]

“Well, I have got to know him,” retorted Frank Abercromby, with emphasis, “and I tell you this, he is working body and soul at something that will astonish the world when the secret is out.”

“Stagger humanity like old Kruger,” said the teasing Vallance. “Put some whisky into his coffee, and he will tell us all about it.”

“I shan’t tell you anything till Carmichael gives the word. He has gone up to that quiet spot to meet Carysfort the engineer whom some of you know, and also Clarence Radcliffe the Oxford curate. The last is a queer sort of a chap, rather a dreamer you know, been through an awful lot of trouble, lost his wife during their honeymoon, but he did me a regular good turn and I mean to stick to him. I’m going to ask him to come and meet the Professor and the engineer and we will see if we can’t get a bit ahead.”

“But, my dear chap, how long is this job going to take?” said Sheldon. “Carysfort is a pledge there will be one sane person in the enterprise, but how are you to start again for your degree?”

“I’m not going to start again.”

“Great Scott! are you going down after this term?”

“I’ve no alternative. My uncle hates me, and has taken an unjust advantage of my failing to pass to give up all further support of me.”

“I’m awfully sorry, but what the dickens will you do?”

“Join myself to Carysfort and the Professor.”

“And what will he do?” slyly put in Gilbert Rice.

“Well, of all the extraordinary things I ever heard, this about beats the record,” said Sheldon. Then he resumed—

[Pg 9]

“Carmichael the scientific don, whose lectures were so dry that they well-nigh killed the Vice-Chancellor. Carysfort a hard-headed engineer, Radcliffe a poor parson nearly knocked silly by melodrama in his honeymoon, and you Abercromby—well, present company always excepted you know—meeting to carry on some work in Northumbria about which our distinguished selves are for an indefinite time to know nothing,” and he finished with the most expressive of gestures.

“I think we had better go a walk to Cherry Hinton,” said Joe Vallance; “won’t you come with us, Abercromby?”

“No, comrades of a bygone day,” said Abercromby, with a distinct catch in his voice, “I have a less pleasurable duty to do: to pack my box.”

“Well, I’m beastly sorry,” said Gilbert Rice, “hope the clouds will roll by soon, old fellow.”

A few weeks later a small group of friends were seated in the parlour of a house in a lonely situation facing the North Sea, a few hundred yards from St. Bartholomew’s Point at Newbiggin. The July sun was setting in splendour and the watery expanse was calm as a lake. The Professor had placed upon the table a small model, shaped after the fashion of a submarine boat constructed of a greyish-white substance, divided into several tiny compartments and pointed at the end with a steel prow.

“Gentlemen,” said the Professor, “I will ask my [Pg 10]good friend Mr. Carysfort to explain to you in outline the significance of what you now see.”

“Well, gentlemen,” answered the engineer, “this is only a small model, but the first step is often the most important, and it will certainly be so, we trust, in this case. This machine is capable of doing more than solving the problem of aerial navigation. It is an airship and can be used as such by the action of the revolving fans, but it can do more. When there is no air sufficient for the fans to beat, it can still go onward farther and farther from the earth. You know that in theory any particle of attraction can be converted into a particle of repulsion whereby the law of gravitation may be suspended for an adequate time. But the practical difficulty has been to find a power that will effect this change. The power has been found. A new substance has been discovered by the joint labour of the Professor and myself, two new chemical elements both having certain affinities with radium, which can, by the help of electric energy, impart to this model, or to a machine of larger size, the power to resist the gravitation force of the earth

until we are sufficiently far away from it to fall into some other centre of attraction. This simply means that the secret of interplanetary communication has been solved.”

The others listened in profound silence. Then Clarence Radcliffe said: “How long will it take to construct a machine on the requisite scale and finish?”

“About two years at the most,” answered Carysfort, “but I hope a less time will suffice.”

“And where the dickens are we going?” asked [Pg 11]Abercromby. “To the moon, I suppose, first, and then onwards to Mars. Mars seems to be the goal of scientific enterprise just now.”

“I shall not go to Mars,” replied the Professor; “we know as much about Mars already as we can ever hope to know without actually visiting it. People rave about the canals, but that semi-arctic planet, which I do not believe is inhabited after all, has little interest for me. But there is a planet equal in size to our own earth, much nearer to us than Mars, aglow with light and probably with life. We are going to Venus. This is the enterprise which will enrich humanity with the larger knowledge. You can get a map of Mars with all the continents named, but no one ever drew a map of Venus. No one ever will except he goes there.”

“What is to be approximately the speed of the machine?” said Radcliffe.

“Ten miles a second when we are in the airless void,” replied Carysfort, “but we can regulate our speed at will when it becomes advisable to do so. The distance to be travelled is between twenty-three and twenty-seven millions, according to the precise positions of the two planets. Mars is never less than thirty-five millions and that only once in about fifteen years; its ordinary minimum of nearness is at least forty-eight millions.”

“How many people will the machine be constructed to hold?” said Abercromby in a rather excited tone.

The Professor hesitated, then he slowly replied, “For myself, my servant Jackson, Carysfort, and one [Pg 12]other.” There was a moment’s pause, then the Professor looked fixedly at Abercromby.

“May I take a turn with you on the sands?” asked Abercromby, his face somewhat flushed.

The Professor assented, leaving Radcliffe talking with the engineer. The two others opened the garden gate and stepped out on to the fine dry sands for which Newbiggin is famous.

“Come, my friend,” said the Professor, “you must not take refuge in shyness, but to end all dispute, I want you. You have had rough luck, and you are just the young fellow whose services an older man like me would gladly enlist.”

“Professor,” said Abercromby, “I am awfully keen on the work, few could be more so, but I will give up my share to the man who saved me from a beastly scrape when I was visiting Oxford.”

“I know to what you refer,” replied Carmichael a little impatiently; “some rascal accused you of stealing one of the inter-Varsity athletic prizes, and Radcliffe cleared you by unmasking the real culprit. No one rejoiced more than I, but I cannot see why this should cut you out of the greatest enterprise ever attempted by man.”

“Have you heard of Radcliffe’s awful trial?”

“Not full particulars.”

“Well, I will tell you all I know, and then you will see that the only chance of saving him from utter shipwreck lies in giving him a new object in life.”

“Will the story take long in the telling?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Drive ahead then.”

[Pg 13]

CHAPTER II A LIFE SORROW AND ITS REMEDY

“I’m not going to pile on the agony, but will just give you the main facts.

“He was curate at one of the Oxford churches, after taking a good degree in his special department. Well, he cycles over to Chipping Norton in the summer term, rescues a lady from the grip of a loafing tramp, gets invited to the house, a country rectory a mile or so from the town. She thinks him a paladin, of course; he thinks her an angel equally of course. They get head over ears; the old parson hesitates at first but consents. So he is married in the village church to May Lilian Carnforth. I do soberly believe that no two human beings ever so loved each other since marriage was instituted.”

“Five minutes gone,” said the Professor dryly.

“They went on their honeymoon to Barmouth. They had not been there long before she began to lose her admiration of him, though he kept his admiration of her. At last they had a row; I don’t know what it was about, some utterly trivial matter probably. She declared she would not go an excursion up the river to Dolgelly with him as had been planned. He said in anger she might go by [Pg 14]herself, knowing that this was practically impossible. She flounced out of the house and went across the road to her cousin, Miss Amy Vereker, who was staying in the place. Radcliffe saw them go off together. Miss Vereker was expert at the oar. He thought it best to let them go by themselves. It was an ideal day for a river or sea trip. He waved his hand to his wife as she turned the corner, but she gave no response. To cut the ghastly story short, the boat was upset near Penmaen Pool. Amy Vereker just narrowly saved her life, May Lilian Radcliffe was drowned. No one will ever know exactly what happened; it was held at the inquest that the boat grated upon a rock in mid-stream.

Radcliffe came home alone, and resumed his work. He is said to have preached better, but I only heard him once. His subject was ‘The Wilderness,’ and though I am a graceless scamp, and likely to remain so, I had a jolly old cry when I came out.”

The Professor stood silent. At last he said, “We will go back to the house; I will speak to Radcliffe.”

The party were still assembled in the parlour inspecting and admiring the model machine. Honest Tom Jackson, who had been the Professor’s faithful servant for years, was just saying, “It looks so nice that it’s a pity we can’t get into it and start at once. It’s a deal of polishing I’ll be after when I gets into the real one. I’ll keep it as bright as a new pin.”

“Mr. Radcliffe,” said the Professor, “I shall be pleased to offer you a place in our expedition. You [Pg 15]will be a most welcome addition to our party if you choose to cast in your lot with us.”

“I have often wished to die,” said Radcliffe, whose eyes shone with a strange lustre, “but you have offered me something nobler. But I am a minister and I do not know how far my beliefs may be in accord with yours. I am also a man crushed to the very ground with a sorrow that nothing can ever eradicate but the Mansions of the Blest, which even the ancient Egyptians believed in, and to which I wish to go some day for a special purpose. Ought such a man as I to travel with those whose energies are fresh and unimpaired? But if we ever reach Venus and find intelligent life upon its surface you must give me a free hand, provided I do not compromise your safety. I place myself at your disposal, gentlemen.”

“My dear chap, just come along and see what there is to be seen,” said Abercromby cheerfully. “I shall often think of you, and hope that the bigger sun of Venus may shine upon your dream and your work. Don’t go on to Mercury, mind!”

The whole party laughed, but upon the face of Radcliffe there was a grave and troubled look of enquiry. “You are coming of course,” he said.

“No room—given up my berth in the asteroid to you, old fellow.”

“Then I decline,” said Radcliffe promptly.

“Beg pardon, gentlemen,” broke in Jackson, “but why couldn’t we put on an extra bit to the machine, and have the two? One will dance to the natives up there, and the tother will preach to ’em.”

[Pg 16]

“I shall do it,” said the Professor; “it will cost very little more. They shall both go. As to the matter of beliefs, I don’t choose to let every bystander know my mind. Mr. Radcliffe’s may be old-fashioned, but they have contrived to carry him through what might have wrecked other men. A new world will probably put a number of things on a sounder footing, though it may knock others on the head. Carysfort and myself have not studied theology, we are simply thinkers with open minds. If there are any people in Venus to teach, teach them all you can, and learn from them all you can. You are a scholar and a philosophic dreamer as well as being an old-fashioned believer. I knew a parson very like yourself, he was the straitest of the strait, but when I got him out of the pulpit for a little private talk, I never met so daring a speculatist in my life. But he kept his speculations as speculations, and he gave his people only his convictions. But I am on the sermonising warpath myself, and will pull up. You are welcome amongst us, and are now one of us.”

“I’m a man of few words,” said the engineer, “but I’m right glad to have both you and Mr. Abercromby. We could not afford to dispense with either of you.”

“From the depths of my grateful heart I thank you,” said Radcliffe in a broken voice.

“Well, it is about time we had some tea,” suggested Abercromby; “all the rest of the business is settled nem. con. I always find it safe to abbreviate my Latin.”

[Pg 17]

CHAPTER III STARTING SKYWARDS

Two years have passed away since the meeting at Newbiggin described in the last chapter. They have been years of varied and incessant toil, research, forethought, and preparation.

The Professor continued his scientific lectures in Cambridge for one more academic year and took a house for the vacation at Cullercoats. Carysfort stuck to his old quarters near to Newbiggin, where his workshops were erected. Abercromby kept with him, working like a dock labourer, as the engineer used often to say. Radcliffe held on to his curacy at Oxford and drew crowds, at least so Abercromby always declared, for when he could spare himself a holiday he ran down to see him. His rector, a man notorious for his orthodoxy though his sympathies ran in a somewhat different channel, would have been much startled had he known the character of the studies in which his curate delighted.

Many works that bore on astronomy and kindred subjects were to be found in his library, and once a person, happening to drop in, casually remarked that the undergraduate who had evidently left his books behind him when he went down must have been a man of wide reading.

[Pg 18]

Study is generally supposed to make a man pale and thin, but upon the curate it had a contrary effect. He seemed, as time went on, to get better and stronger. He sunk the whole of his private means in his friends’ enterprise, and supported himself for the last few months on the merest pittance.

One bright June evening he and Abercromby met on the railway platform at Cullercoats. They walked together to Beverley Terrace and had tea and supper with the Professor and Carysfort.

“Matters are approaching a crisis, old man,” said Abercromby. “The Professor tells me we must pack our week-end boxes in a month, in fact, to be precise, July 22nd is the day fixed.”

A spasm of pain shot across Radcliffe’s face but he only said, “I will be ready.”

“Write me down an ass,” said Abercromby. “We must alter the date, Professor.”

“Quite so,” answered Carmichael. “Venus is approaching the minimum distance, but a margin of ten days could be allowed.”

“There shall not be a margin of ten minutes as far as I am concerned,” replied Radcliffe. “After all, it is best for me that I should bid an eternal farewell to this earth on that date. It has been chosen for me, and I accept it.”

“Let me tell you how matters stand,” said Carysfort. “We had our trial trip last night. It was quite dark, there was no moon, so we could start unobserved. We passed over Rothbury at a height of about two miles, then we drifted towards Newcastle, and when we were over Ponteland we soared straight [Pg 19]towards the zenith. We saw the sun rise in the east, and then found that our most difficult task was to get back again before it rose over the Tyne. We were quite outside the atmosphere and saw the earth at a rather unusual altitude. It was a bit ghastly I allow, but we knew already we had succeeded.”

“Abercromby was splendid,” said the Professor; “he stood in the outer balcony in that rarefied atmosphere till I had to drag him in.”

“I drew the line at going off pop,” said Abercromby, “because I naturally felt that though I might be of little use at the best of times, yet if by chance I burst I might even be less.”

“Did any people see you as you descended?” asked Radcliffe.

“Only two bounders walking in from Woodhorn, and though it was barely six o’clock they had both been tippling. They ran down the road screaming, but we put on speed and were safe over the garden wall and our machine in its proper place before they could do any harm. It was a near shave though, and we have voted for no more trips till the final start.”

“What I have chiefly feared,” said the Professor, “was that some meddling Government official would insist upon knowing what we were about. However, being in England, I knew I was in the easiest place to destroy the British Empire if I desired so to do, as nobody would believe it of me, and everybody would think it uncharitable to say it of me, so I had no bother except from the surveyor of taxes. It happened that some patriotic gentleman not very far off was perfecting an airship to render England invulnerable [Pg 20]to the Germans, but many liberal-minded clergymen and laymen think he would show a more broad spirit of Christianity if he gave it to the Kaiser. Thanks to this good man I have been much less an object of curiosity than I might have been.”

“Suppose we just take a stroll on the Tynemouth sands and talk over details,” said Carysfort. “To-morrow, if you can stay, you must come with us to Newbiggin and inspect the machine for yourself. Full particulars must wait until then.”