Transcript

Part 5 · The Fixed Flight

0:00
Section five up The Fixed Flight by Maurice Renaud. This LibriVox recordings in the
0:06
public domain, read by Ben Tucker. Part five. Worn out with fatigue,
0:14
I stretched myself on the glass floor, the pedestal of my seat between
0:18
my legs, under the cloak of rest. I became a victim for long
0:21
hours to the horridest nightmare. But no dream could equal and extravagance the fabulous
0:27
reality, and my awakening seemed the beginning of a nightmare more horrible than all
0:31
the others. When I recognized that I must live again for good, this
0:36
delirious dream, all the disagreeables of the situation fell on me. At a
0:40
blow, the periscope shed its peep of light in the cabin ethel her face,
0:46
blanched by its livid glimmer, slept even as a corpse sleeps. Jimmy,
0:50
stern and seemingly sculptured in bronze, mounted guard at his post, and
0:55
implacable night reigned over us. I knew fear and may despairing movement. Whereupon
1:02
my hand struck something cold and smooth. It was the brandy bottle. In
1:06
three seconds time for a bumper, I could conquer my panic. What was
1:11
I thinking of, since the memory of man fear has never seized on my
1:15
valorous soul. Nevertheless, the sinister visitant returned to the charge, and to
1:19
exercise it. I had recourse to frequent drafts of courage, and courage of
1:25
this sort tastes good. Valiantly I swallowed it without reflecting on the consequences of
1:30
valor, assimilated in this wise incorporated and liquid form, in this confined cell,
1:36
where I shared my sad lot with an impudent negro and a well bred
1:40
lady. Ah, gentlemen, you must forgive this illusion. It bears witness
1:45
to the veracity of my story and shows in a strong light how very different
1:49
are the tales of Jules Verne and other stay at home writers from an authentic
1:53
voyage. And so my intemperance was big, with consequences, and very considerable
1:59
ones, which I will confide to you alone. It was seven o'clock when
2:02
passing over the Bealaric Aisles Ethel gave orders preparatory to stopping. Now. Then
2:08
Archie, wake up, you have slept enough. Take your tiller ropes aye
2:14
aye, Madame Corbett, said I with a gracious smile, entirely at your
2:17
service, Madame Corbett, quickly turning up the lamp. My sister looked me
2:23
up and down. During the whole day that she had had me behind her,
2:25
she had never looked to see whether I slept or weight. My joyous
2:29
countenance now merely showed a keen and highly legitimate satisfaction at landing. At last
2:34
at Belmont, the brakes made a grating sound, the wind began to go
2:38
down. My companions, busily occupied, did not cease from manipulating, one
2:42
after the other the infinity of regulating instruments. I was ashamed of doing nothing,
2:46
but a just pride filled my heart at the thought of the services I
2:50
would render with my rudder. They should see what a pilot I could be.
2:54
Yes, there should be no two opinions about that. I was jolly
2:58
well going to astonish missus Ethel the masculine and that rhapscallion of a chimney sweep.
3:04
One to port your helm, one to starboard your helm, and just
3:08
to see I pulled alternately on either hand. Needless to say, the rudder
3:13
did not move. Held stiffly in the atmosphereic stream whose speed lent it the
3:16
resistance of a solid. It was almost prevented from turning on its pivots.
3:22
My efforts made me breathe hard. My tiller rope seemed screwed to something perfectly
3:25
immovable, and it enraged me. You shall, you, brute, I
3:30
said inwardly to the recalcitrant rudder, move you shall if I die for it.
3:35
Thereupon I pulled for all I was worth, and so violently that one
3:38
of the rods detached itself from the cursed thing. Unable to check my effort,
3:43
I pulled away a great length of it from the bulkhead. Hallo,
3:46
I said to myself, suddenly sobered, I hope they won't notice anything.
3:52
It was extremely unlikely. The thoughts of the other two were on their maneuvers.
3:55
The accident might perhaps be made good. So I fumbled about with my
3:59
right trying to refix it. But the rod, which ran through the whole
4:01
body of the motor, had got out of the orifice, whence it issued
4:04
from the stern of the balloon, And it was the act of an idiot
4:09
to try to put it back without entering the engine room, to try from
4:12
a distance to readjust it to the rudder. Nevertheless, that is what I
4:16
tried to do. With puckered brow. All at once, anger overcame me.
4:20
I banged the rod in with all my force, backwards and upwards.
4:25
Something it met with gave way as easily as a bit of cardboard it went
4:28
through. I felt the end of the rod caught in the hole it had
4:30
made, and I pulled it out with a brusque movement, whereon a distinct
4:34
whistling made itself heard, rising shriller than that of the surrounding air current.
4:40
Ethel was listening, desperate and perceiving that the rod was still stuck in something
4:44
soft and hampering. I tried to tear away the clinging hindrance. My sister
4:48
and Jim turned round on hearing the suspicious whistling, and saw me on my
4:51
feet, tugging at the cordage with both hands. They sprang forward too late.
4:58
The hidden entanglement had come away in the outer her darkness, and far
5:00
down beneath us there was a sort of frying sound which crackled, crackled,
5:05
good heavens. Jim cried my sister, the gas is escaping. I seem
5:10
to hear sparks striking quick quick run. Jim fled towards the gyroscopes and I,
5:15
losing my head, opened a door on to the void, but I
5:17
had no time to throw myself through it. A furnace flash, a deafening
5:20
thunder, a paroxysmal impression of light, and a most terrific uproar. I
5:27
clung to the metal door and lost consciousness. The end of the story,
5:30
gentlemen, you know more about than I do. Mister Archibald Clark had ceased
5:34
speaking open mouthed. We watched him finish his last claireat and his last glass
5:40
of liquor. Thanks to him, the box of cigars had diminished, and
5:43
the circle of whiskey in the bottle had sunk to a very thin disk,
5:46
like a fluid counter. We had frequently interrupted mister Clark with admiring ohs and
5:50
ahs. On several occasions I had been required to help him with expressions which
5:56
failed him, and the worthy victim had profited by these numerous delays to abuse
6:00
the supply of whiskey and tobacco. With a queer ostentation, Gayton looked at
6:04
him, wide eyed, staring at the sole survivor of such an incredible freak.
6:10
Mister Clark rose from his chair and leaned against one of the portholes.
6:13
Their little round openings lined the panels of the dining saloon, like so many
6:16
sea scapes set in medallions, but they would have been considered wretched canvasses circles
6:21
which cut out the mass of sea in the empty sky to enclose them in
6:26
flat geometrical shapes, which the horizon split into two sections, one green and
6:30
one blue. The American declared that it was not all pretty well, my
6:35
man well, murmured Gayton, who was meditating on Clark's exploits. And so
6:43
Monsieur I said, after a moment to mister Clark, and sow your sister
6:46
and the negro are dead. Almost certainly, he replied, And mister Clark
6:53
threw the stub of his cigar into the sea, as if ethel Corbett's end
6:57
in the Destiny of jem and the fate of a cigar stump weighed all the
7:00
same upon his phlegmatic soul, naggers pooh, you know what they are a
7:05
dirty race. As to my sister, well, the poor girl sometimes had
7:09
these whims that story of the legacy. You can't imagine what is the good
7:15
of wasting words upon the subject? Bah At this speech we were lost once
7:19
more, in silent contemplation of this individual, Monsieur said, I, at
7:25
length, can you explain this to me? When the Aerofix passed through the
7:29
air above the Oushinide, I noticed something strange about the whistling the first day
7:33
it began to make itself heard. I am careful not to say after the
7:38
appearance of the vessel, for its light could not be perceived afar off very
7:42
much later than when still visible the vessel issued from the horizon, and the
7:46
Aerofix had, on the other hand, sunk far into the west, while
7:49
we could still hear its whistling. The second time, there was approximate coincidence
7:55
of duration between the sound of your vessel and the rainbow like curve it would
7:59
have made had it no been for the accident. After a moment's reflection,
8:03
Clark explained, it is very simple, mister Sinclair. The first day,
8:07
having attained a point above the oceaneed, we scarcely slowed down at all,
8:11
and our speed was superior to that of the sound, which travels at forty
8:16
six meters sixty six per second. You grasp my meaning. The second day,
8:20
our slowing down was more marked and would have about equalized the two rates.
8:24
Do you want further details? Unnecessary? After all, it is merely
8:31
a problem for the lower form given a train, et cetera. But by
8:35
jove, exclaimed Gayton, were their powers of understanding, which seem very unusual.
8:41
It is hardly possible that you cannot give us some tips about the aerofix,
8:45
the lightweight accumulators, for instance. I've told you all I know,
8:50
replied Clark, And if I have confided in you under the seal of secrecy,
8:54
it is because you fished me out of the water, and your anxiety
8:58
to know my story had to be satisfied. I can only tell you again
9:01
that the working parts of the motor, its interesting parts, were hidden from
9:05
me, and in no circumstances did I catch sight of them, nor was
9:09
I enabled to form an idea of them. Perhaps from certain remarks let fall
9:13
in the cabin, a learned professor or an engineer might have deduced the contents
9:20
of the closed engine room and the particulars of the gyroscopes. For my part,
9:24
I was incapable of doing so, and I only grasped my poor sister's
9:28
explanation, purposely succinct as it was by reason of its simplicity, because I
9:33
possess, in common with every one in this age of sport, some elements
9:37
of mechanics. If I have retained some of the figures fairly easily, do
9:41
not put it down to my knowledge, which is nil, but attract it
9:46
to my business of accountant, whose practice, with its stay at home but
9:50
quiet interests, I look forward to enjoying once more. Having delivered himself of
9:56
these words of wisdom, mister Clark thenceforward held his peace, and notwithstanding our
10:01
pressing him, he would never return to the amazing flight of the Aerofix,
10:03
pretending that it reminded him of such unhappy circumstances. Until we reached Havre,
10:09
where mister Clark took leave of us. It must be acknowledged that he kept
10:13
an inveterate silence, not only regarding the fixed flight, but on every other
10:18
subject. We had great difficulty in dragging any details out of him about Trenton,
10:22
the cable manufactory, and his beloved Robling brothers, And then again he
10:28
would only speak to me. It was plain he did not like Gayton,
10:31
and as long as circumstances force him to frequent his host's society, he was
10:35
civilly grateful towards him, but remarkably laconic. As soon as the oceaneed came
10:41
alongside the landing stage, mister Clark, having refused the wherewithal Gayton had offered
10:45
to lend him to return home, left us with a low bow and crossed
10:48
the gangway at a run. The result of his departure was naturally to relegate
10:54
mister Clark to one's list of souvenirs and ideas. An absent person is no
10:58
more than a thought, and as such his whole being simplified, classified,
11:03
reduced to essentials, appears to us with its peculiar characteristics as violently marked as
11:07
in a character on a stage. Those who are dead and those who travel
11:11
one seems to look at from afar. Off of their finer shades and of
11:16
their appearances, one can perceive but one dominant color, and that a mere
11:20
silhouette, often enough caricatured. Mister Clark bore the aspect in our memories of
11:24
some extraordinary puppet. The fellow's eccentricity jumped to the eye, as they say,
11:30
now that he was no longer with us, A palpable witness of the
11:33
marvelous adventure. His tale seemed like a dream to us, and he himself
11:37
an hallucination. I proposed somewhat late in the day to institute an inquiry on
11:41
board we set to work. It was carried out rather unmethodically and merely ended
11:46
in exasperating our curiosity. The sole information we gained concern the tips he had
11:52
distributed before leaving. Mister Clark had tipped the crew and the servants magnificently.
11:58
That this cashier scattered the content of his purse like a nabob already seemed to
12:01
form an indefinite kind of charge against him. But that was not all.
12:05
These gratuities had been paid by him, an American coming straight from Pennsylvania in
12:11
French bank notes and Louise the Paris train bore me away my imagination full of
12:16
this affair, while Gayton sped in his motor car towards his castle of Venues
12:20
au Lois without wasting more ink that the incident deserves. I must make a
12:26
note of this stupid argument that preceded our goodbyes, which serving to convert a
12:30
momentary disagreement into an irrevocable rupture, has authorized me to set down a picture
12:35
of the Baron de Venues Paradole as he really is. If he finds it
12:39
not to his taste, let him say so, I am at his service.
12:41
But let us get back to our subject. Some weeks after my return,
12:46
I was the owner of quite a little dossier concerning mister Clark and the
12:50
events preceding his fall into the Atlantic. First, there were newspaper cuttings and
12:54
bulletins from various observatories noting such showers of shooting sparks as a cod on the
13:00
nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first of August, and the passing of a bow
13:03
light across Europe during the night of the nineteenth to the twentieth. Then there
13:07
were ready translated for my use divers attestations of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese correspondence
13:15
dwelling on the fortieth parallel, who certified having spent the nights of twentieth and
13:18
twenty first of August up and about without observing any abnormal light or hearing any
13:24
unusual whistling, that they had seen nothing was not unnatural Missus Corbett cut off
13:28
the electric light when they were above continents, but that they heard nothing.
13:33
What do you make of that now? Regarding the question of these depositions,
13:37
it was necessary to have guarantees of the perfect good faith of their signatories.
13:41
Here is the source of my information. One of my nephews takes in a
13:46
little popular review printed in various languages. It is the organ of one of
13:50
the most respectable international clubs. Its subscribers Polyglots, take pleasure in exchanging all
13:56
kinds of things, from picture postcards to certain poems, which will not make
14:00
any of them famous. I am indebted to my nephew for the reports from
14:03
Italy, Spain and Portugal, as also for all the remaining information. There
14:07
were also translations of letters, but letters sent from Philadelphia and from Trenton.
14:13
They form a formidable pile of evidence against mister Clark. Certainly, there was
14:18
a Fairmount Park at Philadelphia, and in Fairmount Park, west of the Schuylkill
14:22
River, a place Belmont, with an open plain surrounded by hills, exceedingly
14:26
suitable for launching an aeroplane, as our civil informant observed, But the Corbetts
14:31
did not exist at Trenton. Among the manufacturers of pottery and the less honest
14:37
fabricators of Egyptian scarabs, the cable manufactory of Roebling Brothers was known, but
14:41
no cashier in the establishment answered to the high sounding name of Archibald, or
14:46
to the crisp and clear cut one of Clark. Our men had again become
14:50
the sinister, being the unknown. The castaway end of Park five, end
15:00
of the fixed flight by Maurice Renard,