CHAPTER VII
BEN ZOOF WATCHES IN VAIN
In a few minutes the governor general and his population were asleep.
The gourbi being in ruins, they were obliged to put up with
the best accommodation they could find in the adjacent erection.
It must be owned that the captain's slumbers were by no means sound;
he was agitated by the consciousness that he had hitherto been unable
to account for his strange experiences by any reasonable theory.
Though far from being advanced in the knowledge of natural
philosophy, he had been instructed, to a certain degree, in its
elementary principles; and, by an effort of memory, he managed
to recall some general laws which he had almost forgotten.
He could understand that an altered inclination of the earth's axis
with regard to the ecliptic would introduce a change of position
in the cardinal points, and bring about a displacement of the sea;
but the hypothesis entirely failed to account, either for the shortening
of the days, or for the diminution in the pressure of the atmosphere.
He felt that his judgment was utterly baffled; his only remaining
hope was that the chain of marvels was not yet complete, and that
something farther might throw some light upon the mystery.
Ben Zoof's first care on the following morning was to provide
a good breakfast. To use his own phrase, he was as hungry
as the whole population of three million Algerians, of whom
he was the representative, and he must have enough to eat.
The catastrophe which had overwhelmed the country had left
a dozen eggs uninjured, and upon these, with a good dish of his
famous couscous, he hoped that he and his master might have
a sufficiently substantial meal. The stove was ready for use,
the copper skillet was as bright as hands could make it,
and the beads of condensed steam upon the surface of a large
stone al-caraza gave evidence that it was supplied with water.
Ben Zoof at once lighted a fire, singing all the time,
according to his wont, a snatch of an old military refrain.
Ever on the lookout for fresh phenomena, Captain Servadac
watched the preparations with a curious eye. It struck him
that perhaps the air, in its strangely modified condition,
would fail to supply sufficient oxygen, and that.
the stove, in consequence, might not fulfill its function.
But no; the fire was lighted just as usual, and fanned into
vigor by Ben Zoof applying his mouth in lieu of bellows,
and a bright flame started up from the midst of the twigs and coal.
The skillet was duly set upon the stove, and Ben Zoof
was prepared to wait awhile for the water to boil.
Taking up the eggs, he was surprised to notice that they hardly
weighed more than they would if they had been mere shells;
but he was still more surprised when he saw that before the water
had been two minutes over the fire it was at full boil.
"By jingo!" he exclaimed, "a precious hot fire!"
Servadac reflected. "It cannot be that the fire is hotter,"
he said, "the peculiarity must be in the water." And taking
down a centigrade thermometer, which hung upon the wall,
he plunged it into the skillet. Instead of 100 degrees,
the instrument registered only 66 degrees.
"Take my advice, Ben Zoof," he said; "leave your eggs in the saucepan
a good quarter of an hour."
"Boil them hard! That will never do," objected the orderly.
"You will not find them hard, my good fellow. Trust me, we shall
be able to dip our sippets into the yolks easily enough."
The captain was quite right in his conjecture, that this new phenomenon
was caused by a diminution in the pressure of the atmosphere.
Water boiling at a temperature of 66 degrees was itself an evidence
that the column of air above the earth's surface had become
reduced by one-third of its altitude. The identical phenomenon
would have occurred at the summit of a mountain 35,000 feet high;
and had Servadac been in possession of a barometer, he would have
immediately discovered the fact that only now for the first time,
as the result of experiment, revealed itself to him--a fact,
moreover, which accounted for the compression of the blood-vessels
which both he and Ben Zoof had experienced, as well as for
the attenuation of their voices and their accelerated breathing.
"And yet," he argued with himself, "if our encampment has been
projected to so great an elevation, how is it that the sea remains
at its proper level?"
Once again Hector Servadac, though capable of tracing consequences,
felt himself totally at a loss to comprehend their cause;
hence his agitation and bewilderment!
After their prolonged immersion in the boiling water,
the eggs were found to be only just sufficiently cooked;
the couscous was very much in the same condition;
and Ben Zoof came to the conclusion that in future he must be
careful to commence his culinary operations an hour earlier.
He was rejoiced at last to help his master, who, in spite
of his perplexed preoccupation, seemed to have a very fair
appetite for breakfast.
"Well, captain?" said Ben Zoof presently, such being his ordinary
way of opening conversation.
"Well, Ben Zoof?" was the captain's invariable response
to his servant's formula.
"What are we to do now, sir?"
"We can only for the present wait patiently where we are.
We are encamped upon an island, and therefore we can only be
rescued by sea."
"But do you suppose that any of our friends are still alive?"
asked Ben Zoof.
"Oh, I think we must indulge the hope that this catastrophe has not
extended far. We must trust that it has limited its mischief to some small
portion of the Algerian coast, and that our friends are all alive and well.
No doubt the governor general will be anxious to investigate the full
extent of the damage, and will send a vessel from Algiers to explore.
It is not likely that we shall be forgotten. What, then, you have to do,
Ben Zoof, is to keep a sharp lookout, and to be ready, in case a vessel
should appear, to make signals at once."
"But if no vessel should appear!" sighed the orderly.
"Then we must build a boat, and go in search of those who do not come
in search of us."
"Very good. But what sort of a sailor are you?"
"Everyone can be a sailor when he must," said Servadac calmly.
Ben Zoof said no more. For several succeeding days he scanned the horizon
unintermittently with his telescope. His watching was in vain.
No ship appeared upon the desert sea. "By the name of a Kabyle!"
he broke out impatiently, "his Excellency is grossly negligent!"
Although the days and nights had become reduced from twenty-four hours
to twelve, Captain Servadac would not accept the new condition of things,
but resolved to adhere to the computations of the old calendar.
Notwithstanding, therefore, that the sun had risen and set twelve
times since the commencement of the new year, he persisted in calling
the following day the 6th of January. His watch enabled him to keep
an accurate account of the passing hours.
In the course of his life, Ben Zoof had read a few books.
After pondering one day, he said: "It seems to me, captain,
that you have turned into Robinson Crusoe, and that I am your
man Friday. I hope I have not become a negro."
"No," replied the captain. "Your complexion isn't the fairest in the world,
but you are not black yet."
"Well, I had much sooner be a white Friday than a black one,"
rejoined Ben Zoof.
Still no ship appeared; and Captain Servadac, after the example
of all previous Crusoes, began to consider it advisable
to investigate the resources of his domain. The new territory
of which he had become the monarch he named Gourbi Island. It had
a superficial area of about nine hundred square miles.
Bullocks, cows, goats, and sheep existed in considerable numbers;
and as there seemed already to be an abundance of game,
it was hardly likely that a future supply would fail them.
The condition of the cereals was such as to promise a fine
ingathering of wheat, maize, and rice; so that for the governor
and his population, with their two horses, not only was there
ample provision, but even if other human inhabitants besides
themselves should yet be discovered, there was not the remotest
prospect of any of them perishing by starvation.
From the 6th to the 13th of January the rain came down
in torrents; and, what was quite an unusual occurrence at this
season of the year, several heavy storms broke over the island.
In spite, however, of the continual downfall, the heavens still
remained veiled in cloud. Servadac, moreover, did not fail to observe
that for the season the temperature was unusually high; and, as a matter
still more surprising, that it kept steadily increasing, as though
the earth were gradually and continuously approximating to the sun.
In proportion to the rise of temperature, the light also assumed
greater intensity; and if it had not been for the screen of vapor
interposed between the sky and the island, the irradiation which
would have illumined all terrestrial objects would have been vivid
beyond all precedent.
But neither sun, moon, nor star ever appeared; and Servadac's
irritation and annoyance at being unable to identify any one point
of the firmament may be more readily imagined than described.
On one occasion Ben Zoof endeavored to mitigate his master's
impatience by exhorting him to assume the resignation, even if
he did not feel the indifference, which he himself experienced;
but his advice was received with so angry a rebuff that he
retired in all haste, abashed, to résumé his watchman's duty,
which he performed with exemplary perseverance.
Day and night, with the shortest possible intervals of rest,
despite wind, rain, and storm, he mounted guard upon the cliff--
but all in vain. Not a speck appeared upon the desolate horizon.
To say the truth, no vessel could have stood against the weather.
The hurricane raged with tremendous fury, and the waves rose to a
height that seemed to defy calculation. Never, even in the second
era of creation, when, under the influence of internal heat,
the waters rose in vapor to descend in deluge back upon
the world, could meteorological phenomena have been developed
with more impressive intensity.
But by the night of the 13th the tempest appeared to have spent its fury;
the wind dropped; the rain ceased as if by a spell; and Servadac,
who for the last six days had confined himself to the shelter
of his roof, hastened to join Ben Zoof at his post upon the cliff.
Now, he thought, there might be a chance of solving his perplexity;
perhaps now the huge disc, of which he had had an imperfect glimpse
on the night of the 31st of December, might again reveal itself;
at any rate, he hoped for an opportunity of observing the constellations
in a clear firmament above.
The night was magnificent. Not a cloud dimmed the luster of the stars,
which spangled the heavens in surpassing brilliancy, and several nebulae
which hitherto no astronomer had been able to discern without the aid
of a telescope were clearly visible to the naked eye.
By a natural impulse, Servadac's first thought was to observe
the position of the pole-star. It was in sight, but so near
to the horizon as to suggest the utter impossibility of its
being any longer the central pivot of the sidereal system;
it occupied a position through which it was out of the question
that the axis of the earth indefinitely prolonged could ever pass.
In his impression he was more thoroughly confirmed when, an hour later,
he noticed that the star had approached still nearer the horizon,
as though it had belonged to one of the zodiacal constellations.
The pole-star being manifestly thus displaced, it remained
to be discovered whether any other of the celestial bodies
had become a fixed center around which the constellations made
their apparent daily revolutions. To the solution of this problem
Servadac applied himself with the most thoughtful diligence.
After patient observation, he satisfied himself that the required
conditions were answered by a certain star that was stationary not
far from the horizon. This was Vega, in the constellation Lyra,
a star which, according to the precession of the equinoxes,
will take the place of our pole-star 12,000 years hence.
The most daring imagination could not suppose that a period
of 12,000 years had been crowded into the space of a fortnight;
and therefore the captain came, as to an easier conclusion,
to the opinion that the earth's axis had been suddenly and
immensely shifted; and from the fact that the axis, if produced,
would pass through a point so little removed above the horizon,
he deduced the inference that the Mediterranean must have been
transported to the equator.
Lost in bewildering maze of thought, he gazed long and intently upon
the heavens. His eyes wandered from where the tail of the Great Bear,
now a zodiacal constellation, was scarcely visible above the waters,
to where the stars of the southern hemisphere were just breaking on his view.
A cry from Ben Zoof recalled him to himself.
"The moon!" shouted the orderly, as though overjoyed at once
again beholding what the poet has called:
"The kind companion of terrestrial night;"
and he pointed to a disc that was rising at a spot precisely
opposite the place where they would have expected to see the sun.
"The moon!" again he cried.
But Captain Servadac could not altogether enter into his
servant's enthusiasm. If this were actually the moon, her distance
from the earth must have been increased by some millions of miles.
He was rather disposed to suspect that it was not the earth's
satellite at all, but some planet with its apparent magnitude
greatly enlarged by its approximation to the earth. Taking up
the powerful field-glass which he was accustomed to use in his
surveying operations, he proceeded to investigate more carefully
the luminous orb. But he failed to trace any of the lineaments,
supposed to resemble a human face, that mark the lunar surface;
he failed to decipher any indications of hill and plain;
nor could he make out the aureole of light which emanates from
what astronomers have designated Mount Tycho. "It is not the moon,"
he said slowly.
"Not the moon?" cried Ben Zoof. "Why not?"
"It is not the moon," again affirmed the captain.
"Why not?" repeated Ben Zoof, unwilling to renounce his first impression.
"Because there is a small satellite in attendance."
And the captain drew his servant's attention to a bright speck,
apparently about the size of one of Jupiter's satellites seen
through a moderate telescope, that was clearly visible just
within the focus of his glass.
Here, then, was a fresh mystery. The orbit of this planet was
assuredly interior to the orbit of the earth, because it accompanied
the sun in its apparent motion; yet it was neither Mercury nor Venus,
because neither one nor the other of these has any satellite at all.
The captain stamped and stamped again with mingled vexation,
agitation, and bewilderment. "Confound it!" he cried,
"if this is neither Venus nor Mercury, it must be the moon;
but if it is the moon, whence, in the name of all the gods,
has she picked up another moon for herself?"
The captain was in dire perplexity.
