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Updated: June 8, 2025
And if the staunch old craft is in the perfect condition that von Schalckenberg anticipates, we shall probably have them with us by ten o'clock or thereabouts." "Ah!" exclaimed Lady Olivia, "that is just the point about which I cannot help feeling apprehensive.
"It is as I feared," said von Schalckenberg, after they had toiled painfully over the surface for some time; "we have reached the region of paleocrystic or ancient ice; and my cherished theory of an open sea about the North Pole vanishes into thin air.
"And, thereupon, the majority declared for M'Bongwele; while we who were opposed to him agreed to bide our time and await the return of the Spirits, recognising the futility of resistance at the moment, which, indeed, could but have ended in M'Bongwele's triumph and our destruction to no purpose." "You did well, O Lobelalatutu," answered von Schalckenberg, approvingly.
The chief topic of conversation at the dinner-table that night had, naturally, more or less direct reference to the professor's capture of the tyrant, Vasilovich, and everybody was keenly anxious to learn from von Schalckenberg the full details of the feat. There was nothing for it, therefore, but for the hero of the adventure to describe the incident in extenso.
"You cannot save his life?" demanded the chief; and there was a note of keen anguish and fierce sorrow in his accents as he asked the question. "I do not say that," answered von Schalckenberg. "It may be possible. But blind, deaf, dumb, as he is, what will life be worth to him, even if I can preserve it?" "True, O Spirit," answered Lobelalatutu.
"And these," exclaimed von Schalckenberg, enthusiastically, "are the results of but a few hours' search! Surely there must be a ruby mine of almost fabulous richness somewhere close at hand. Now is the time for me to acquire a little of that wealth of which I am in such urgent need." And, raising his hat to Lady Olivia, he turned away.
Lobelalatutu had been reared in a school in which stoical indifference to suffering, whether personal or in another, is esteemed a cardinal virtue; yet even he could not wholly conceal the emotion which possessed him as he turned to von Schalckenberg and drew the attention of the professor to the ghastly injuries already inflicted by the terrible ants.
"And supposing that he should tell you a pack of lies?" suggested Lethbridge. "Oh, he will not do that, I think," replied von Schalckenberg. "He is a cruel, unscrupulous, and absolutely selfish man, but, if I have read his character aright, we shall also find that he is far too much of a coward to attempt to deceive us." "But what if he should?" persisted the colonel.
"How dare you, you scoundrel! What do you mean by coming here and destroying my property in this insolent way, eh?" And he reached towards a hand-bell that stood near him on the table. "Sit down, and keep your hand from that bell," retorted von Schalckenberg, sternly, levelling the pistol, quick as light, at the count's head.
"You can do a great deal for me, Count," answered von Schalckenberg, composedly. "But first of all," he continued, "I have a little thing here that I wish to show you; you are a connoisseur in such things, and it will interest you." So saying, the professor slipped his hand into his pocket, and produced a pistol, made apparently of polished silver, but really of aethereum.
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