CHAPTER V
THE WORK OF AN ENEMY
Jack’s first act, on arising from amid a mass of tools, into which he had been tossed by the explosion, was to run to where Professor Roumann lay in a semi-conscious condition. An instant later Mark slowly arose, and made his way to where Professor Henderson was rubbing his forehead in a dazed fashion.
“Are you hurt?” asked Mark, of his aged friend.
“I think not,” answered Mr. Henderson slowly, “but I fear Mr. Roumann is. See to him; I’m all right.”
“He’s breathing,” cried Jack, who had bent over the German. “He isn’t dead, at any rate.”
“But he may be, unless he gets attention,” said Professor Henderson. “Get my medicine chest, Mark, and we’ll see what we can do for him.”
Jack had raised the head of the injured man on his arm, and was giving him some water from a glass. This partially revived the German, and he opened his eyes. He looked around, into the faces of his friends, as if scarcely comprehending what had happened, and then, as his gaze wandered toward the disabled Cardite motor, he exclaimed:
“Some enemy has done this! The motor was tampered with. The resistance block was loosened, and that caused the force of the Cardite to shoot out at the rear. We must watch out for the work of this enemy!”
“Don’t distress yourself about that now,” urged Mr. Henderson. “Are you badly hurt? Do you need a doctor?”
The German slowly drank the rest of the water which Jack gave him, and then gradually arose to a standing position.
“I am all right,” he said faintly, “except that I feel a trifle dizzy. Something hit me on the head, and the fumes from the Cardite took away my breath for a moment. I think I shall be all right soon.”
“Here is the medicine chest!” exclaimed Mark, coming back into the engine room. Mr. Henderson poured out some aromatic spirits of ammonia into a graduated glass, added a little water, and gave it to his fellow, inventor, who, after drinking it, declared that he felt much better. There was a cut on his forehead, where a piece of the broken motor had struck him, but, otherwise, he did not seem injured externally.
As for the boys, they were only stunned, nor was Mr. Henderson more than momentarily shocked. In a few minutes the German professor was almost himself again.
“We must try to discover who our enemy is,” he said earnestly, as he looked over the disabled motor. “He might have blown up the whole projectile by tampering as he did with the machinery. Had I been testing the large, instead of the small motor, there would have been nothing left of the Annihilator, or us, either. Who could have done this? If that crazy machinist is around again——”
“I don’t believe he could get here from Mars,” interrupted Jack, with a smile.
“Hardly,” added Mark.
“No, I guess he is still on the Red Planet, so it couldn’t have been him,” went on Mr. Roumann. “But it was some one.”
Jack and Mark at once thought of the odd man who had sent Mark the note, and then had run away.
“Could it have been him?” suggested Jack.
“It’s possible,” remarked Professor Henderson. “We must be on our guard. I wonder if Washington——”
At that moment there sounded a violent pounding on the exterior of the projectile, and the voice of the colored man could be heard calling:
“Am anything de mattah? Andy Sudds an’ I is out heah, an’ we heard suffin goin’ on in dere. Am anybody hurted?”
“It’s all over now, Wash,” replied Jack, for the two boys, and the two professors, had shut themselves up in the projectile while they conducted the experiment. Jack opened the door of the Annihilator and stepped out, being met by the colored man and the old hunter.
“You haven’t seen any suspicious characters around, have you, Wash?” asked Mark. “Some one has been tampering with a motor, and it exploded.”
“Nobody’s been around since I’ve been here,” announced Andy Sudds, with a significant glance at his gun.
“Maybe it’s some ob dem moon-men, what don’t laik de idea ob us goin’ dere arter dere diamonds,” volunteered the colored man.
“Perhaps,” admitted Jack, with a smile. “But certainly some one has been around here who had no business to be, and we must find out who it was. Better take a look around, Wash.”
“I’ll help him,” said Andy, and, with his rifle in readiness for any intruders, the old hunter followed the colored man outside the big shed.
Meanwhile Professor Roumann and Mr. Henderson were carefully examining the exploded motor.
“I should have looked at the breech plug before turning on the power,” said the German, “but I had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong.” He went on to explain that the explosion was something like that which occurs when the breech-block of a big navy gun is not properly in place. The force of the Cardite, instead of being directed against the piston-heads of the motor, shot out backward, and almost into the face of the professor, who was operating the machine.
“But what could be their object?” asked Mark. “Who would want to injure us, or damage the projectile?”
“Some enemy, of course,” declared Jack. “But who? The crazy machinist is out of it, and as for that man who sent the note to you, he seemed too big a coward to attempt anything like this.”
“Some one evidently sneaked in here and loosened the breech-plug,” went on Mark, “and it was evidently done with the idea of delaying us. The enemy could not have desired to utterly disable the projectile, or else he would have tampered with the large motor, instead of the small one.”
“Yes, the object seems to have been to delay us,” admitted Professor Henderson; “yet, I can’t understand why. Whoever did it evidently knows something about machinery.”
“I hope they did not discover the secret of my Cardite motor,” said Professor Roumann quickly.
“They hardly had time,” declared Mark. “We have been in or around the projectile nearly every minute of the day, and whoever it was, must have watched his chance, slipped in, stayed a few seconds, and then slipped out again.”
They went carefully over the entire projectile, but could find no further damage done. Nor were there any traces of the person who had so nearly caused a tragedy. Washington and Andy, after a careful search outside the shed, had to admit that they had no clews.
“Well, the only thing to do is to go to work and build a new small motor,” announced Professor Roumann, after once more looking over the debris of the one that had exploded.
“Will it take long?” asked Jack.
“About two weeks. Fortunately, I can use some of the parts of this one, or we would be delayed longer.”
“Still two weeks is quite a while,” suggested Mark. “Perhaps there’ll be no diamonds left on the moon when we get there, Jack,” and he smiled jokingly.
“Oh, I fancy there will. The article in the paper from Mars says there was a whole field of them.”
“This brings up another matter,” said Professor Henderson. “What will happen if we bring back bushels and bushels of diamonds?—which, in view of what the paper says, may be possible. We will swamp the market, and the value of diamonds will drop.”
“Then we must not throw them upon the market,” decided Professor Roumann. “The scarcity of an article determines its value. If we do find plenty of diamonds, it will give me a chance to conduct some experiments I have long postponed because of a lack of the precious stones. We can use them for laboratory purposes, and need not sell them. In fact, with the Cardite we brought back from Mars, we have no lack of money, so we really do not need the diamonds.”
It was decided, in view of the shock and upset caused by the explosion, that no further work would be done that day, and so, after carefully locking the shed, and posting Andy on guard with his gun, the boys and the professor went into the house to discuss matters, and plan for work the next day.
“Mark,” said Jack in a low voice, as they followed the two scientists, “I think it’s up to us to try to find that mysterious man who sent the note. I think he did this mean trick!”
“So do I, and we’ll have a hunt for him. Let’s go now.”