United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Professor Pludder then went on to tell how they had escaped from the neighborhood of Colorado Springs when the readvance of the sea began, and how at last it became evident that the influence of the underlying "batholite" would save them from submergence.
Cosmo was at the head of the accommodation-ladder that was being let down on the starboard side, when he heard a shout, and, lifting his eyes from his work, was startled to see a boat containing, beside the rowers, two men whom he instantly recognized they were President Samson and Professor Pludder. Their sudden appearance here astonished him as much as that of Pike's Peak itself had done.
Vive le Pike!" cried the Frenchman, catching the captain's enthusiasm. "But how do you explain it?" asked King Richard. "It's the batholite," responded Cosmo, using exactly the same phrase that Professor Pludder had employed some months before. "And pray explain to me what is a batholite?"
They were delighted to find that they were making, at the very start, no less than three miles an hour. Pludder clapped his hands and exclaimed: "This is capital! In but little over two weeks we shall be safe on the great plains. I have good hope that many have survived there, and that we shall find a plenty of everything needed.
Professor Pludder, not now compelled to spend every moment in the management of the craft, entered the cabin occasionally, pressed the hand of the President, smiled encouragingly on the women and children, and did all he could, in pantomime, to restore some degree of confidence.
Professor Pludder, who was a very big man, reared up his rotund form, and, bringing his fist down upon the table with a resounding whack, exclaimed: "I'll do nothing so ridiculous! These bulletins have undoubtedly been influenced by the popular excitement. There has possibly been a little obscurity in the atmosphere cirrus clouds, or something and the observers have imagined the rest.
Everybody was pitched headforemost, those inside falling on the flooring, while Pludder and the three men of the crew were thrown out upon a mass of rocks. All were more or less seriously injured, but none was killed or totally disabled.
In some other parts of the Rockies, as Professor Pludder had anticipated, an uprising had occurred, and it was finally estimated that as many as three million persons survived the deluge. It was not the selected band with which Cosmo Versal had intended to regenerate mankind, but from the Ark he spread a leaven which had its effect on the succeeding generations.
Professor Pludder was a brave man and full of resources when driven into a corner. Being familiar with the construction and management of aeros, for he had been educated as an engineer, he now took charge of the airship.
"But we cannot sail across this half-submerged area," said the President. "There are depressions," Professor Pludder responded, "and I hope to be able to follow their traces until we reach land that still lies well above the water." Near nightfall they got so close to the "beach" that they could hear the surf, not a thundering sound, but a soft, rippling wash of the slight waves.
Word Of The Day