Greenland's Icy Mountains and the Russian Bear.

Upon the morning of the third day from Constance House the wind shifted almost due west. Silver Cloud was in latitude 65 deg., longitude 70 deg. 13 min., and they were driving rapidly toward Greenland.

"We are still two or three points north of east in our course, and will let her drive as she goes for the present," said Dr. Jones. "And you wouldn't mind seeing Greenland's icy mountains, about which you have sung so many years, would you, girls?"

"O let us see Greenland, by all means, Doctor!" cried Mattie.

"What noted travelers we will be when we get back to Washington," and he placed an arm about each of their waists and galloped them up and down the little sitting room several times.

"I do believe that you grow to be more of a boy every year of your life," panted Mrs. Jones, as she smoothed her rumpled hair.

"You are quite right, Maggie; and what is worse, I do not expect to ever improve a bit on that line. Give me the heart of a boy while I live. And now, Professor, I am ready to give you revenge for that last game or two of chess that went to my credit."

While these two were oblivious to the world in a very closely contested game, Mrs. Jones sat knitting while Mattie read aloud to her from a late magazine. Denison and Fred were pacing the balcony for their "constitutional." Will was working on his oil painting of Jennie Barton, and so beautifully had he succeeded in bringing out the lovely features, and trusting, fearless spirit that beamed from a pair of dark blue eyes, that all the company, even to Sing, expressed their unqualified admiration.

"Me sabe," said the acute Mongolian. "Ah! Will heap likee Miss Jennie."

The artist blushed, and they all laughed uproariously at his confusion, and Sing went chuckling to the kitchen.

The following morning Silver Cloud had nearly crossed Davis Strait, and the bold headlands of the western coast of Greenland were in plain view. They crossed the western boundary line of that land of perpetual winter, just a few miles north of the Arctic Circle.

"Hurrah!" shouted Dr. Jones. "In the Arctics at last!"

The wind held still a little north of due east, and Silver Cloud rode at an elevation of between 3,500 and 4,000 feet. The surface of Greenland was cold, dreary, and uninviting to a degree. Vast tracts of ice and snow stretched in every direction, far as the eye could see. Away in the interior a range of mountains broke the monotony of the landscape. Toward morning a violent snowstorm gathered below them and hid the face of Greenland from view until next morning. Silver Cloud, meantime, was sent up to nearly 5,000 feet altitude, so that they might not collide with any mountain peak during the night.

"Upon my word," said Professor Gray, as he stood on the balcony the following morning, and looked out over the white and ghastly picture of desolation, "I thought Labrador the most inappropriately named country upon the earth, but think of calling this picture of all that is inhospitable and forbidding—Greenland!"

By noon they were crossing swiftly the ridge that runs the length of Greenland, so far as is known. Silver Cloud swept within three hundred feet of one lofty peak, covered with eternal ice and snow. Then on and on, swift as an eagle, over the high plateaux and steppes of Eastern Greenland. Early the following morning they arose to find the Arctic Ocean beneath, and Greenland disappearing in the misty horizon behind them. The wind bore a point or so more easterly, and Dr. Jones was tempted to seek a more favorable current. He descended to the 2,000 foot level, but experienced no perceptible change.

"Well, we'll stick to my original plan. Anything north of due east or west is good enough for us," said he.

But he grew restless as they hour after hour steadily continued upon nearly the same latitudinal line, and descended to 1,000 feet elevation. There was some change for the better at that altitude for many hours. One thing that specially pleased them was the wonderful sensitiveness of the globe to the slightest variation of the temperature within its interior. The Doctor's plan of using hot air alone as the floating power had been modified to the extent of dividing one-half of the globe's interior into several compartments by thin sheets of aluminum, and these were filled with hydrogen gas. The gas fell but little short of the power necessary to float the ship, so that a slight elevation of the temperature in the air chamber above that of the external atmosphere was sufficient to float the vessel. When it was desirable to descend, a trap being opened in the upper and lower parts of the air chamber caused the hot air to rush out and the cold air in, and the descent could be made rapidly or slowly, at the will of the commander. By virtue of the zinc lining of the air chamber the temperature would remain at a given point for many hours without the consumption of a particle of fuel.

The Doctor and Will together had devised a most ingenious method of heating the hot-air chamber instantly. By the use of a small air pump hundreds of atmospheres could be compressed into a very strong aluminum chest or cylinder. Beneath this cylinder were a number of burners that heated the compressed air several hundred degrees. As we said before, when they desired to descend, an upper and lower trap were opened, the hot air rushed out above and the cold air in below, causing the globe to descend with great rapidity. This descent could be arrested at any level by closing the trap, and a certain amount of the air let off from the hot-air chest, and any temperature desired could be attained at once. All this could be done at an expense of oil that was ridiculously and incredibly small. While they could by no means steer or guide this ship, yet, if the Doctor's theory of air currents should prove to be scientifically correct, then they were by no means entirely at the mercy of any and every adverse gale. And, at the worst, when a favorable current could not be found, they could descend to the earth and anchor until a fair wind prevailed. One thing further should be explained. When it became desirable to ascend suddenly or rapidly, the hot-air chest was thrown completely open, and the vast chamber was instantly filled with air at any temperature required. When this operation was from any cause necessary, the upper trap was closed and all the lower apertures opened. The hot air from the chest immediately mounted to the upper end of the air chamber, and forced the excess of cold atmosphere out through these lower traps. The effect upon the globe was marvelous. It would bound skyward like a rocket. By a series of experiments Will had ascertained just the amount of pressure per square inch and the temperature that was necessary to send the ship to a given altitude. The rate of ascent was under perfect control by letting off the hot air slowly or rapidly.

"What a mighty engine for good or evil in the world this ship would be, if it could be guided or steered," remarked Professor Gray.

"I doubt if that can ever be done," replied Will. "The surface presented to the current of atmosphere is too great to allow any sort of device to operate satisfactorily."

"The Government is making experiments with what is called the aeroplane, and the indications are that it is the coming method of aerial navigation. But the degree of comfort that we are enjoying can never be an attendant of that plan. I shall never cease to wonder at the speed with which we are traveling over these Arctic regions in perfect comfort. I never felt better in my life, and I have grown to feel as safe as I ever did in my home in Washington," said Professor Gray.

They occasionally saw whales spouting, and it was exceedingly interesting to watch the great icebergs that floated here and there over the face of the deep. Some of them towered like crystal mountains, hundreds of feet into the air.

"Just think how incomprehensibly great these masses of ice are," observed Professor Gray. "It is estimated that but one-eighth of the berg protrudes above the surface. Now look at that monster! Not less than eighteen or twenty miles long, and from five to six hundred feet high, making it in the neighborhood of a mile in thickness. Ah! see that big fellow turning over! Did you ever see anything so grand! I don't wonder that navigating these seas is next to impossible."

They were all standing upon the balcony when they beheld this startling scene.

For two whole days the beautiful ship continued steadily upon nearly the same course. The Professor pointed out their position upon the map at latitude 70 deg. 35 min., and longitude 50 deg. 20 min., East Greenwich. At this point they encountered a terrible gale from the north. The Doctor raised higher and higher, until they reached an altitude of ten thousand feet. Still they flew at amazing speed toward the south. He ascended to fifteen thousand, then twenty thousand feet elevation, but on they went into the heart of Russia. Will went up into the globe and hurriedly returned.

"You must lower, Doctor! The strain upon the rods is tremendous! The outside atmospheric resistance is so slight at this elevation that we shall certainly explode if you ascend any higher."

"Then we will descend and anchor at the first favorable spot, and there await a south wind. There seems to be a great demand for air at the equator just now. Well, let them have it," said he grimly, "but we are sure to get a regurgitation in our direction before many days. So down we go to study Russian habits and customs."

The upper and lower traps were opened in the air chamber, and they rapidly descended to within five or six hundred feet of the earth. They could plainly see that the foliage was being thrashed with great violence by the gale.

"How shall we manage to safely anchor in this awful wind, Doctor?" asked Will anxiously.

"Do you see that high range of hills just ahead?"

"Yes."

"Well, they run east and west. We will drop immediately upon the other side of them. There it must be comparatively calm. But sharp is the word! We are there now!"

Downward dropped the great ship behind the sheltering crest of the hills, and she, in a moment or two, was skimming quite easily along, just above the treetops. In what appeared to be a great park, the anchor was dropped into the top of a tree. It held securely, and Will and Denison descended in the cage and made a very strong aluminum cable fast about the trunk of the tree. After all was made secure, Dr. Jones and Professor Gray also descended. The little company then began looking around for signs of life.

"I see a large stone building down this avenue," cried Will.

"The Professor and I will prospect the place, while you two had better remain here until our return," said the Doctor.

Accordingly they set off at a lively pace toward the building. As they approached it they looked in vain for signs of human life. They found it to be a massive ancient castle, standing in the midst of an extensive grove or park. They were somewhat awed by the deathlike silence that pervaded the place. They, however, stepped up to a massive oaken door, and Dr. Jones seized the ponderous iron knocker and struck several vigorous blows. They waited two or three minutes, but could hear no sounds within.

"We have struck an enchanted castle, and I must see if I cannot awake the Sleeping Beauty within," said Dr. Jones, and he was about to apply the knocker again, when a deep bass voice from a window above addressed them in a language with which they were unfamiliar.

"We cannot speak your language. Do you speak English?" asked Dr. Jones.

"Are you men, angels, or devils, and what do you want," returned the voice in fairly good English.

The Doctor hastened to give the desired information, and told who they were, etc., concisely as possible.

"What is that fearful and wonderful silver ball or globe in which you dropped from the skies among us?"

After further explanations the bars were removed, and the massive door swung slowly open. There stood before them a large, black-bearded man, holding by the collars two large Russian hounds. The brutes growled and showed their horrid fangs in a way that made the visitors cringe and draw back.

"Please restrain your dogs, sir, for our mission is a perfectly peaceful one," said Dr. Jones; and he smiled so blandly that the man seemed to dismiss his apprehensions. He gave a signal which summoned two men, to whom he consigned the dogs, and they were led away. He now invited them to enter, and gave them seats in an adjoining room.

"Gentlemen, I am Count Icanovich, and this is my castle. I welcome you to its hospitalities. You must excuse the reception we gave you, for I must confess that I have never been so startled in my life as when I saw your extraordinary ship come swooping down upon us a few moments ago. Half my people are in fits, or hidden away in all sorts of holes and corners."

"I am exceedingly sorry, Count, to have come so abruptly and informally among you, but I assure you that we are here very much against our own wishes. We are bound for the North Pole, but this terrible gale from the north necessitated our anchoring for the present. But since fate has cast us among you, I am very happy to make the acquaintance of Count Icanovich. I am Dr. Jones of Washington City, United States, and this is Professor Gray, of Smithsonian Institute, same city."

The Count shook hands with them very cordially, and asked, "How many are there of your party?" Upon being told, he immediately desired that they all be brought to the castle.

"We see but little of the world in this place," said he, "and we hail this break in the humdrum monotony of our life with extreme pleasure."

The two gentlemen returned appropriate acknowledgments of the Count's kindness, and arose to return to the globe for the company.

"Will you accompany us to the ship?" asked Dr. Jones.

"I thank you, but I am a victim of sciatic rheumatism, and can do but little walking," returned the Count. "I hope, however, before you leave us, to be able to inspect your wonderful air-ship."

"Is your sciatica of long standing?" inquired Dr. Jones, all the instincts of a good physician being aroused at the presence of suffering; and running over in his mind a list of remedies from force of long habit.

"About three years. I contracted it from getting wet when warm. I am incurable, and must grin and bear to the end."

"Do you feel better quiet, or when moving about?"

"Oh! I must move about. I usually put in hours at night hobbling up and down my room."

"The bed feels so hard that you cannot find an easy spot to lie on. You are always worse before storms. After sitting a little while you stiffen up, feeling much better after moving about. The tendons of your legs have a drawing sensation, and feel as if too short. There is more or less of numbness and paralysis, and a wooden sort of feeling of the leg when walking. You also have lightning-like shocks of pain through the limb, now and then. Your attacks come on every few weeks, and it is the left limb that is affected. You can be cured."

The doctor rattled these symptoms off with great volubility. The Count looked at him with open-eyed wonder. The professor was not less astonished at the positiveness with which Dr. Jones thus detailed the Count's symptoms without any previous knowledge of the case.

"Whether you be angel or devil, I do not know; but certain it is that you have told my symptoms better than I could have done myself. But you make a bold assertion when you say that I can be cured. Do you know, man, that I have had the best advice in Europe, and have spent a fortune seeking relief?"

"Are you taking medicine now, sir?"

"No. I have thrown physic to the dogs, and may God have mercy on the dogs. I am thoroughly disgusted with physic and physicians. And why should I not be? Several years since, I saw my wife die of pulmonary consumption. And now my only child lies in a chamber above, well advanced in the same terrible, wholly incurable disease. As if this were not enough, I myself am suffering the pangs of h—l with a lingering, incurable complaint. Why shouldn't I detest the whole lying, infernal business?" he roared, striking the floor savagely with his cane.

"Sure enough, sure enough," said the Doctor soothingly and sympathetically. "I do not blame you in the least. But we will see if something cannot be done for you, Count. I believe in my soul that I can cure you, and that right speedily. Let us now hasten back, for our people will be alarmed at our long absence."

They found them indeed wondering and anxious. All immediately descended and repaired to the castle. The Count met them at the door, and, after a formal introduction to each, led them to a large, quite modernly furnished drawing-room.

"Now," said the Count, "please make yourselves at home. I intend that you shall be my guests while you remain in this vicinity. You will be shown to your rooms in a few moments. You will please excuse me now, and I will see you at dinner, which will be at six o'clock."

He was about leaving the room, limping painfully, when Dr. Jones stepped up to him, and, pulling a small vial from his vest pocket, said: "Put out your tongue, Count; I wish to give you a dose of medicine that will cure your sciatica."

The Count looked at him suspiciously a moment, then sat down as requested, and put out his tongue. Dr. Jones shook a grain or two of powder upon it.

"You will suffer less to-night than you have done in a long time. It is very possible that this one dose will cure you perfectly and permanently."

"I tell you frankly, sir, that I have not a particle of faith in your minute, tasteless dose affecting me in the slightest," said the Count with a half angry glare in his deep-set black eyes.

"I do not care a fig for your faith, sir," replied Dr. Jones in his independent American manner. "Happily for you, this is not a Christian Science cure that I am performing. You have the indicated remedy in your circulation now; and with all due respect, believe what you please."

The company of friends were looking on anxiously, fearing that the Doctor was too brusque with the nobleman. But that individual smiled, and really seemed quite pleased and amused at Dr. Jones' positive, straightforward way of doing business.

"Evidently you are not deficient in the element of faith, Doctor, and I can but wish that your faith may not be in vain in this instance."

After the Count had withdrawn, Professor Gray said: "Dr. Jones, I do not at all understand how you could tell the Count his symptoms as you did, without any previous knowledge of the case. Does sciatic rheumatism always present just the same picture, or set of symptoms, that you should be able to so rapidly and correctly tell his purely subjective sensations?"

"Not by any means, Professor. A scientific prescription, like a stool, must have at least three legs to stand upon. You will remember that the Count had already told me that moving about, especially at night, mitigated his pains; that he contracted his ailment from getting wet; and I noticed that he favored the left leg in walking. These were the three legs for my stool, or prescription. I felt positive that the remedy indicated was Rhus Toxicodendron. So I merely mentioned the leading characteristics of that drug, and I was not mistaken. You see, then, that I did nothing marvelous nor supernatural. Now, any one of many other drugs might have been indicated if the symptoms had been different from what they were. The symptoms of the disease must always be the same as those that the indicated drug is capable of producing in crude doses. Rhus tox. will cure the Count because, in every case of poisoning by that drug, there will be produced the symptoms found in his case. Like cures like. This is a universal law of God. I feel quite sure that the Count will experience great benefit from the one dose I have given him."

"I shall watch this case with the greatest interest," said the Professor. "You will make a convert of me to your system if you perform a cure of so obstinate and painful a disease with an infinitesimal dose of medicine."

"All right, my dear sir. I always feel confident of a cure when the symptoms are clear cut as in this instance."

A general conversation was now entered into for a few moments, when servants entered and signaled them to follow, and each was conducted to a comfortable apartment. They shortly after assembled again in the drawing-room and awaited the announcement of dinner. Fred opened the piano, and he and the ladies sang a trio. They were glad when a servant appeared and signaled them to follow him to the dining-room. The Count was the only Russian present who could speak English. So he watched carefully and interpreted the wants of his guests to the servants, and but very little trouble was experienced. They found the cooking very palatable, and their mode of living aboard Silver Cloud in the frosty atmosphere of the Arctic region had sharpened their appetites enormously.

The Count talked with them about their journey, and was much interested in the graphic accounts given by the different members of the party of their experiences. Will explained the plan and construction of the globe. The Count was a good listener, and seemed deeply impressed with all that was said upon the subject.

"It seems to me incredible that you were so short a time ago in Washington City, U.S., and are now sitting at my dining table in the heart of Russia. And think of the circuitous route by which you came! Still I am prepared to believe anything when I look at yonder wonderful silver globe, and remember how you dropped among us from the skies as you did to-day."

After dinner Will and Denison borrowed a lantern and went to see that Silver Cloud was all right for the night. The wind swayed the monster ball back and forward gently, and there seemed to be no great strain upon the cables.

"I think we had better get out the other two cables," said Will. "I do not feel quite safe. A heavy gust might tear it away, and that would be a calamity indeed."

So he ascended to the engine-room and passed the cable ends to Denison, who made them securely fast to adjoining trees.

A very enjoyable evening was spent in the great drawing-room. Of course music constituted the chief source of pleasure. Fred brought his anthem and glee books from the cabin of Silver Cloud, and the old walls of the castle certainly seldom, if ever, rang with such music as was discoursed there that night. The domestics had so far recovered from their fright that they now crowded the adjoining hall to hear the singing. So ravishing was the harmony to their semi-barbaric ears that, conjoined with the marvelous manner of their coming among them, these poor creatures were ready to fall down and worship them as heavenly visitants. The Count himself seemed to enjoy the music exceedingly, and encored long and loudly. When they separated for the night, he shook hands cordially with each, and said:

"My good friends, I cannot sufficiently thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me this evening. You may be sure that my invalid daughter has enjoyed your delightful music. She desired that the door be opened so that she has heard it all. She was an accomplished vocal and instrumental musician before her illness. Perhaps she may feel well enough to see you in the drawing-room to-morrow evening."

Turning then to Dr. Jones, he said: "Well, Doctor, whether it be your medicine or music that has charmed away my pains, I do not know; but it is certain that I have not been so free from suffering for a long time. I bid you all a very good night."

After a consultation it was thought best that two should sleep aboard Silver Cloud every night so long as the party remained with the Count. So Will and Denison took upon themselves this duty, and immediately repaired to the cabin for the night.