old high priest claimed; if the Pharoah had
people’s ideas sir,” said Courtland in reply to really been shot out of the shaft by virtue of
a particularly violent snort from the Professor, some unknown force and had never returned;
as the result of the account of Cavor’s
why should not modern man, with all the
departure into space.
resources of modern science at his command,
“I am not objecting to the ideas, but to
harness this force and actually extend his the lack of them,” grunted the Professor.
kingdom to other planets.
“These space flyers all go in the same way—
To be Professor Wadsworth, the man
straight up! Whereas, if you cut off the effect who discovered the proofs of an Egyptian
of gravity upon a body, that body will not go
migration to Mexico, was much. To be Myron
up, at all!”
Wadsworth, the man who took his life in his
“Not go up!” exclaimed Courtland.
hands and reached the moon—why, that was
“Then where will it go?”
more, infinitely more! Look at Lindbergh! He
“Along of course!” said the Professor.
flew a mere three thousand miles and became,
“Along! I don’t understand.”
almost overnight, the most talked of man in
“Let me ask you a question,” said the
history. But to fly to the moon and back; that
Professor, sitting up in his deck chair.
was equal to more than a hundred times the
“Suppose you mounted an electromagnet on
distance from New York to Paris!
the edge of a large wheel and caused a piece
The chemistry class at Blantford of soft iron to adhere to one pole of the College would have been much amazed to see
magnet. When the wheel is rotating, in what
their dignified, if somewhat portly professor,
direction would the piece of iron move, if you
dancing “ring-a-round-a-rosie” with a former
suddenly shut off the magnetizing current?”
pupil on the summit of a pinnacle eight
Courtland thought for a moment.
hundred feet high in the Atlas Mountains and
“Why, at a tangent to the rim of the
shouting at the top of his voice:
wheel, I suppose,” he offered, finally.
The Face of Isis
19
“Exactly! And when we shut off the
reporters and curiosity mongers of all sorts.
force of gravity between our car and the earth, That was the kind of thing they wished to
it will move away from the earth tangentially,
avoid. Once the journey was an accomplished
not straight up.”
fact, they, or at least the Professor, would
“Well, but,” said Courtland slowly, welcome all the publicity in the world. As for
“the shaft in the Dibel el Sheetan pointed
Courtland, it was the adventure which
straight up.”
appealed to him. He cared nothing for the
“Quite true,” said the Professor. “That
fame it would bring.
was because the High Priest knew nothing
The work was carried on by foreign
about the reason for making it any other way.
workmen, brought from Boston. First
As a matter of fact, the Pharoah’s chariot or
Courtland and the Professor selected a suitable coffin, whichever you like to call it, never
spot in the middle of a dense clump of trees at went through the hole in the temple roof, at
the summit of a low hill. A roadway running
all.”
east and west was cleared and the tracks laid
“Never went through the hole?” part way down the slope, although the queried Courtland doubtfully.
Professor anticipated that the chariot would
“Certainly not!” snapped the Professor.
leave the ground within a hundred yards of the
starting point.
very slowly until it reached the mouth, level
The chariot was to be long and
with the floor of the temple.
streamlined, to reduce friction while passing
Then it flew off, not vertically but through the atmosphere. It was to be shaped horizontally, just skimming the floor.”
like a torpedo cut in half lengthwise, so that
“But in that case,” objected Courtland, “it
the bottom was practically flat. Courtland
would have crashed against the sides of the
suggested and carried out a new method of
stone bowl.”
construction, consisting of many layers of
“Undoubtedly it would have done so,
very thin sheet steel, alternating with asbestos.
but for the speed attained in the shaft, which
These layers were built on a rough wooden
was probably sufficient to lift it above the
framework, and held together by rivets, none
edge of the bowl. For this reason we should
of which passed entirely through. This was to
build our car on level tracks on the top of a
reduce the heat-conducting powers of the
hill. There is a hill near my home in New
sides.
Hampshire which will be perfectly suitable.”
Upon Courtland devolved the work of
WHEN the asbestos-steel body was complete,
designing their “Chariot” as they always the wooden framework was removed and the called it. The Professor was wrapped up in the
chariot was ready for its inner fittings.
theoretical, the scientific end of the enterprise.
During the evenings, the two
He spent the days in the study of his cottage in adventurers had long talks. One of the first
the New Hampshire hills, gushing forth, like a
things Courtland wanted to know was how
scientific fountain, a steady stream of long the journey would take.
formulae, curves, graphs and drawings.
“The motion of the chariot on leaving
Meanwhile Courtland rushed back and
the surface of the earth,” elucidated the
forth from Boston with a truck they had Professor, “will be entirely due to the rotation bought and which he drove himself. Secrecy
of the earth on its axis. The surface of the
was essential. If once word of their plans
earth in “this latitude is moving at
leaked out, they would be overwhelmed by
approximately 600 miles per hour. At that
Amazing Stories
20
velocity it would take us seventeen days to
The Professor was adamant. Once
reach the moon.”
convinced of the correctness of his translation,
“That seems pretty slow traveling he adhered to it rigidly; neither would he compared to the interplanetary journeys in tolerate the wasting of one grain of the fiction,” objected Courtland.
precious powder.
“You must not overlook the fact that
“Authorities! Experiments!” he
there is a second factor which will greatly
sputtered. “My authority is sufficient and
increase our speed. From the moment we experiments are unnecessary. We will stake leave the earth, that body will cease to exist, our all on the one great experiment.”
so far as any effect of gravity upon the cha
riot So the time passed until at last, the
is concerned. We shall fall upon the moon
chariot stood ready upon its rails. It measured with a continually accelerated velocity, just as only sixteen feet in length and about six in
any free body in space would fall. Our speed
diameter. The outside was painted dull black,
at any moment will be the speed of a free,
to enable it to absorb as much heat as possible falling body, plus six hundred miles per hour,
from the sun’s rays. There were a number of
which is our speed due to the centrifugal force small portholes, one of which was made
of the earth’s rotation.”
removable to enable the travelers to enter,
But how shall we know the exact after which it could be made secure by means moment to start in order to hit the moon?”
of bolts and a rubber gasket.
asked Courtland. “With so many factors to
In the interior were stored the various
consider, it seems a frightfully complicated
supplies required for the trip. There was food
problem. What with the rotation of the earth,
for two months, a special form of gasoline
the earth’s movement in its orbit, the moon’s
stove for cooking and heating, together with
movement in its orbit and the attraction of the all sorts of scientific appliances. The pointed moon, our chances of making connection with
ends of the chariot were partitioned off and
the Face of Isis seem pretty slim.”
filled with oxygen cylinders. There was an
“The complication is only apparent,”
apparatus which the Professor had designed
replied the Professor, “because all movement
for purifying the air, to keep the content of
is purely relative and we are only concerned
carbon dioxide to a breathable percentage.
with the movement of the chariot in relation to Penetrating the sides of the chariot
the moon. All we have to do is start at moon-
were four curved tubes. The inner ends of
rise, when the moon is full, with the chariot
these tubes were provided with airtight
pointing east; that is approximately at the breeches, like torpedo tubes, into which lunar sphere. The chariot, affected only by its charges of slow-burning explosive could be
initial movement and by the attraction of the
introduced for the purpose of controlling the
moon, will follow a curve and fall to the
movement of the chariot in space. As the
surface of the moon. Accuracy of aim is not a
Professor pointed out, when they reached a
prime requisite at all.”
predetermined point in their journey, it was
More than once Courtland ventured to
only necessary to rotate the chariot more or
raise doubts as to the wisdom of expending so
less on its longitudinal axis, in order to reduce much effort without first conducting some its speed to any amount desired. They would preliminary experiments with the contents of
land on the moon “upside down,” so that the
the casket. He also suggested the advisability
gravity screen would not counteract the
of calling into consultation some great attraction of the lunar mass. When they authority on Egyptian hieroglyphics.
wished to return, they would simply roll the
The Face of Isis
21
chariot over on its base, and they would be
sentiments appropriate to the occasion. He
off.
thought of the dramatic effect, with which
Most important of all was the Verne described the emotions of the three equipment for handling the anti-gravitational
adventurers shut up in the projectile, as they
powder itself. There was a false floor in the
waited for the pressure of a button to blast
chariot and under this were a series of flat
them into space. He felt that on the eve of
trays containing the powder. A most ingenious
such an unprecedented adventure, he too,
arrangement, designed by the Professor and
should experience a great spiritual uplift or
carried out by Courtland himself, allowed the
depression, a flood of anticipation or fear.
trays to be flooded with sulphuric acid by
He tried in vain to bring his mind into
simply closing a switch. Thus the gravity the state which all writers of fiction regard as screen would take effect over the whole floor
indispensable to such a time. But somehow, it
uniformly and there would be no danger of an
wouldn’t do! His reason told him that in less
upset at the start.
than twelve hours he would be hurled into
On March 27th, just five months from
space, but his instincts simply refused to
the day when they had set sail on their voyage
believe his reason. This day was just like any
to Morocco, all preparations were complete.
other. The sun shone, the birds sang, the wind
Everything that human ingenuity could devise
whispered in the leaves. Everything was as
to insure the success of the undertaking had
usual except the gloomy shadow among the
been done. There remained only one thing.
trees on the hill top, that black mass crouching Would the mysterious powder acquire the like a devilish insect, or like an overgrown and properties they believed? Or was the old high
misshapen slug.
priest playing a joke on them?
Courtland was for trying their fate at
once, but the Professor urged that they should
CHAPTER VI
wait until the night of the full moon.
The Flight of the Chariot
“The moon will be full on April 1st,”
he said. “By waiting until then, the moon,
earth and sun will be in line, and there will be AFTER lunch, the two men made their final
very little chance of the superior attraction of arrangements. No one knew of their rash plan-the sun diverting us from our course.”
The Austrian mechanics had returned to town
“Well, I’m not particularly keen to three days before. The Professor had given his investigate the solar granulations at close housekeeper a few days holiday to visit her quarters.” Courtland said, “But it seems like
daughter in a near-by village. All personal
tempting fate to start on a day like that. I’m
matters had been arranged with a view to the
not superstitious, but April 1st! I suppose possibility of disaster. Neither Courtland nor we’re a couple of fools, but that seems like
the Professor had any near relatives to mourn
rubbing it in!”
them if they should never return.
The fateful day dawned clear and
At five o’clock they left the house and
bright, a glory of blue and green and gold.
walked to their chariot, the vehicle in which
Nature went about her business as usual, quite
they hoped to accomplish what their ancient
unperturbed by the threatened invasion of her
Egyptian forerunner had attempted so many
planetary sanctuaries. When Courtland walked
generations ago. Courtland helped the
up the hill to make a last inspection of the
Professor through the open porthole and
chariot, he tried in vain to co
njure up followed him. They swung the heavy glass-
Amazing Stories
22
door into place and secured it with the bolts
sulphuric acid flooded the trays beneath the
provided for that purpose. As Courtland floor. For an instant nothing happened. Then tightened the nuts, he found himself there was a rending, crashing roar. The chariot wondering if he would ever loosen them again
rocked and trembled as if under the impact of
or whether another hour would find the chariot
a terrific bombardment. Courtland was hurled
bearing two more corpses into space to join
to the floor. His head came into violent
the frozen body of Kut-Amen-Pash.
contact with a box of supplies and he lost
The Professor started the oxygen consciousness.
apparatus and the carbon dioxide absorber.
When Courtland came to his senses, it
There was nothing more they could do. Their
was with a terrible feeling of physical
preparations were complete to the smallest
oppression, unlike anything he had ever
detail. Nine minutes had still to elapse before experienced. He was lying on his face and for
the moon rose.
a moment he thought that something must
They took their places side by side in
have fallen upon him from above; some
the center of the chariot. Two heavy handles
tremendous weight which had pinned him to
were bolted to the sides, to be gripped at the
the floor. He struggled vainly to raise himself moment of departure, thus counteracting any
to his knees.
possible shock, although the Professor
There was no sensation of movement,
believed that no such shock would be but he knew that there would be no such experienced.
sensation if the chariot were flying through
Through the front port, Courtland space, no matter what the velocity. He could see a little circle, the upper half, sky, wondered whether this pitiless pressure that