Lost on the Moon Part 25

They sat discussing various matters, and, while doing so, Was.h.i.+ngton White peered into the living cabin.

"Has yo' got one ob dem torch-light processions t' spare?" he asked.

"Torch-light processions?" queried Mark. "What do you think this is, an election, Wash?"

"I guess he means a life-torch," suggested Jack. "Are you going out, Wash?"

"Yais, sah, I did think I'd take a stroll around. Maybe I kin find a diamond fo' my tie."

Laughing, Jack provided the colored man with one of the torches, instructing him how to use it, and presently Was.h.i.+ngton was seen outside, walking gingerly around, as though he expected to go through the crust of the moon any moment. Pretty soon, however, he got more courage and tramped boldly along, peering about on the ground for all the world, as Mark said, as if he was looking for chestnuts.

They paid no attention to the cook for some little time until, when the boys and the two professors were in the midst of a discussion as to where would be the best place to move the projectile next, they heard him running along the corridor toward the cabin.

"Wash is in a hurry," observed Jack.

The next instant they sprang to their feet at the sight of the frightened face of the colored man peering in on them. He was as near white as a negro can ever be, which is a sort of chalk color, and his eyes were wide open with fear.

"What's the matter?" asked Jack.

"A ghost! I done seen de ghost ob a dead man!" gasped the colored man.

"A ghost?" repeated Mark.

"Yais, sah, right out yeah! He's lyin' down in a hole--a dead man.

Golly! but I'se a scared c.o.o.n, I is!" and Was.h.i.+ngton looked over his shoulder as though he feared the "ghost" had followed him.

CHAPTER XXII

A BREAKDOWN

At first they were inclined to regard the announcement of Was.h.i.+ngton lightly, but the too evident fright of the colored man showed that there was some basis for his fear.

"Tell us just what you saw, and where it was," said Mr. Henderson. "Was the man alive, Was.h.i.+ngton?"

"No, sah. How could a ghost be alive? Dey is all dead ones, ghosts am!"

"There are no such things as ghosts," said Mr. Henderson sternly.

"Den how could I see one?" demanded the cook triumphantly, as if there was no further argument.

"Well, tell us about it," suggested Jack.

"It were jest dis way," began Was.h.i.+ngton earnestly, and with occasional glances over his shoulder, "I were walkin' along, sort ob lookin' fer dem sparklin' diamonds, an' I didn't see none, when all on a suddint I looked down in a hole, and dere I seen HIM!" and he brought out the word with a jerk.

"Saw what--who?" asked Mr. Roumann.

"De ghost--de dead man. He were lyin' all curled up, laik he were asleep, an' when I seed him, I didn't stop t' call him t' dinner, yo'

can make up yo' minds t' dat all."

"Can you show us the place?" inquired Jack.

"Yais, sah, ma.s.sa Jack, dat's what I kin. I'll point it out from dish yeah winder, but I ain't g'wine dar ag'in; no, sah, 'scuse me!"

"Well, show us then," suggested Mark. "I wonder what it can be?" he went on.

"Maybe one of the people who came from Mars after the diamonds, who was forgotten and left here, and who died," said Jack.

"It's possible," murmured Mr. Henderson. "However, we'll go take a look. Get on your fur coats, boys, and take the life-torches. Will you come, Andy?"

"Sure. It's got to be more than a ghost to scare me," said the hunter.

They emerged from the projectile and walked in the direction Was.h.i.+ngton had pointed, holding their gas torches near their heads and talking of what they might see.

"This will be evidence in favor of my diamond theory," declared Jack.

"It shows that the Martians were here."

"Wait and see what it is," suggested his chum.

They walked along a short distance farther, and then Mark spoke.

"That ought to be the place over there," he said, pointing to a depression between two tall pinnacles of black rock.

Jack sprang forward, and a moment later uttered a cry of astonishment.

"Here it is!" he called. "A dead man!"

"A dead man?" echoed Professor Henderson.

"A petrified man," added Jack, in awe-struck tones. "He's turned to stone."

A few seconds later they were all grouped around the strange object--it was a man no longer, but had once been one. It was a petrified human being, a full-grown man, to judge by the size, and it was a solid image in stone, even the garments with which he had been clothed being turned to rock.

For a moment no one spoke, and they gazed in silence at what was an evidence of former life on the moon. The man was huddled up, with the knees drawn toward the stomach and the arms bent around the body, as if the man had died in agony. The features were scarcely distinguishable.

"That man was never an inhabitant of Mars," spoke Professor Henderson, in a low voice. "He is much too large, and he has none of the characteristics of the Martians."

"I agree with you," came from Mr. Roumann.

"Then who is he?" asked Jack.

"I think," said the aged scientist, "that we are now gazing on all that was once mortal of one of the inhabitants of the moon."

"An inhabitant of the moon?" gasped Mark.

"Yes; why not?" went on Mr. Henderson. "I believe the moon was once a planet like our earth--perhaps even a part of it, and I think that it was inhabited. In time it cooled so that life could no longer be supported, or, at least, this side of the moon presents that indication. The people were killed--frozen to death, and by reason of the chemical action of the gases, or perhaps from the moon being covered with water in which was a large percentage of lime, they were turned to stone. That is what happened to this poor man."