04 Volcano Adventure Read online

  ‘Not the nicest place in the world to go for a walk!’ he said as he picked the sharp points from his hands.

  ‘Not the nicest place to go for a walk,’ repeated Kobo, practising his English.

  At every step they crushed through a bed of black lava glass a foot deep. Their socks were soon cut to ribbons and their legs bled. The blades of glassy rock were as sharp as razors.

  ‘Obsidian,’ Hal said. Tn ancient times before iron was discovered people used to make knives out of this stuff.’ Hal stopped to jot down in his notebook items that he knew the doctor would want to have. He stood still only a moment, but the scorching heat from below came up through the soles of his boots and made him move on in a hurry.

  They clambered over ridges twenty feet high that looked like great waves of the ocean suddenly turned to stone. They were panting and puffing now, and sweating at every pore.

  ‘I think we stop little time now, rest,’ suggested Kobo, and sat down heavily on a rock. He leaped up at once for the rock was as hot as a stove. They stumbled on along the crater’s edge.

  Hal suddenly stopped. He was looking down the steep slope into the crater. About thirty feet down gleamed some peculiar blue stones.

  ‘That’s something the doctor will want,’ said Hal, ‘a sample of that rock.’

  ‘But you cannot,’ objected Kobo. ‘It is too - up and down.’

  ‘You mean too steep? Oh, I don’t think so - if I take it slowly.’

  ‘But we have no rope.’

  ‘I think I can manage without one.’

  He turned his back on the crater and lay down on his stomach, his feet over the edge. Then he eased himself gradually down the slope, using his hands and feet as brakes. Fortunately the volcanic glass had given way to a sort of gravel that was not so hard on the hands.

  He was to learn in a moment, however, that even gravel can be dangerous. Stones that he dislodged with his fingers or feet tumbled down the slope, and kept on tumbling until they splashed into the fiery red lake far below.

  Hal had nearly reached his goal when he was suddenly terrified by a new sensation. The whole gravel bed on which he lay had started to slip. If this was a real landslide it would carry him straight to his death in the lake of fire.

  He tried to keep his nerve. He knew that if he scrambled upwards he would only make the slide move faster.

  He lay perfectly still while his body slipped inch by inch and the stones tumbled past him.

  Then the slipping stopped. He did not move. What to do now? If he tried to climb he would start the landslide.

  He could do nothing but stay where he was. Even that was dangerous, for his weight might start the gravel moving. He was in a pretty fix. Looking up, he saw that Kobo was starting down towards him.

  ‘Stay where you are,’ he cried. ‘You’ll only make it worse. Go and get Dr Dan.’

  He knew as he said it that it was a foolish suggestion. It would take an hour to fetch Dr Dan and this was a matter of minutes. At any second the slide might begin.

  ‘No time get doctor,’ called Kobo, and kept on coming.

  ‘Go back,’ demanded Hal. ‘You can’t do a thing. No use two of us getting bopped off.’

  He found himself thinking a crazy thought: if Kobo was ‘bopped off’ then all the time he had spent teaching the boy English would be wasted.

  Kobo was creeping lower. The idiot - he would start everything going and they would both slide down.

  But Kobo stopped on a solid flat rock about ten feet above his friend. He called down to Hal.

  Take off your…’ His English failed him. He slapped his legs. Take off - the word, I do not know.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘These,’ he slapped his legs again. ‘Take off.’

  ‘You mean my trousers?’

  ‘Ah, yes - trousers! Take off. Do same like me.’ He undid his own trousers and began to slip them off.

  He’d gone plumb crazy, thought Hal. Gone clean out of his head.

  Suddenly he understood Kobo’s plan. Yes, it might work. Very carefully he moved his hands down to his belt. He loosened the belt and the waistband. The stones started moving and he lay still. When they stopped he began inching off his trousers. He took his time about it. Better go slow with this than fast with the avalanche.

  At last they were off. He tossed them up to Kobo. He did this as lightly as he could, yet it started a slipping of gravel. Hal slid three inches nearer the hungry fire - then the movement stopped.

  Kobo fastened the two pairs of trousers together with his belt. Then he lay flat on the rock and threw Hal one end of the crude lifeline. Hal caught it.

  But would Kobo be able to draw him up? Hal was much larger and heavier than the Japanese.

  Hal did not expect much. Probably Kobo could not lift him. Or the trousers would split, or pull apart. Then he would start sliding and wouldn’t stop until he plopped into a bath twenty times as hot as boiling water. And with his trousers off! Well, he wouldn’t suffer long.

  The heat, the noise, the danger - they made odd notions race through his brain. He didn’t want to die with his trousers off. He had heard an old soldier say, ‘l want to die with my boots on.’ That was the way he would like to die, too, if he had to die - in full uniform, fighting a glorious fight. But to pass out by slipping and sliding half-dressed into a pot hole - that was no way to die. That was something to make anybody laugh. He could laugh at it himself, and he did. Kobo was astonished to see him laughing.

  Another fancy struck him: if he turned up at the pearly gates without his trousers would St Peter let him in?

  All this fled through his half-dizzy mind in a moment. Then he heard Kobo calling:

  ‘You big boy. I no can bring up unless you help. I count to three. Then you come like everything and I pull like so. Are you ready?’

  ‘Ready!’ replied Hal. His daydreams were gone now and he tensed himself for the big effort.

  ‘Ichi!’ began Kobo. Hal knew that ichi meant one. In his excitement Kobo had forgotten his English and was counting in his own language.

  WzV Hal gathered up all his strength. ‘SAN!’ yelled Kobo, and pulled.

  Hal leaped upwards at the same instant. The stones flew out from under his feet. There was a muttering growl and the whole gravel bed upon which he had been lying began to slide. A ripping sound told him that the trousers were coming apart at the seams.

  But by now he had his hands over the edge of the solid rock occupied by Kobo.

  There he dangled as everything went out from under him. Every stone that slid started another stone sliding. The landslide spread left and right until it seemed that the whole slope was roaring downwards. It thundered like the hooves of a thousand wild horses and clouds of dust rose from it.

  The avalanche crashed down into the lava lake making a sound like heavy surf on an ocean beach.

  Helped by Kobo, Hal scrambled up on to the rock. Then they turned and climbed on firmer ground to the edge of the crater. Here they looked back on a terrifying sight as the avalanche carried billions upon billions of tons of rock down into a blazing lake so hot that it would almost immediately turn the hard rock into flowing liquid.

  Half dazed by their experience they trudged on along the edge of the crater until they met Dr Dan and Roger. As soon as they saw them these two gentlemen began to laugh.

  Hal thought, they wouldn’t laugh if they knew what we have been through. Then his mind cleared a bit and he realized that something was missing. They had forgotten to put on their trousers. Kobo was still carrying them in his hand. He began to untie them from each other.

  The doctor was no longer amused. He could see by the bedraggled and weary appearance of the two boys that something pretty bad had happened. They were bruised and battered and covered with dust.

  ‘We heard an avalanche,’ Dr Dan said. ‘Were you mixed up in it?’

  ‘We certainly were,’ said Hal. ‘And I’d be at the bottom right now if it hadn’t been
for Kobo. Kobo and two pairs of trousers.’

  He and Kobo pulled on their badly ripped trousers.

  Dr Dan was looking at them thoughtfully. Then he turned and started down the mountain with Roger. For a while they walked in silence, each too full of his own thoughts to speak. Then Dr Dan said:

  ‘Well, Roger, I think Kobo has paid for his lessons.’

  ‘I’ll say he has!’ agreed Roger.

  Chapter 10

  The sinking ship

  Again the Lively Lady sailed, this time due south. Japan was left behind.

  Left behind also was Kobo who had returned to his school for another examination. Hal anxiously wondered what the result would be. He was to get word later that Kobo had passed with flying colours.

  Dr Dan came running up the companionway to the deck.

  ‘Captain! Crowd on every inch of sail. Use the auxiliary too.’

  ‘What’s the rush?’

  ‘I’ve just had a radio call from the Hydrographic Office. They report an eruption about two hundred miles south.’

  Captain Ike called to Omo to loose the staysails and start the engine.

  ‘What course?’ he asked Dr Dan.

  ‘Set your course for Myojin Island.’

  Captain Ike scanned his chart.

  ‘There’s no such place. It says here Myojin sank out of sight forty years ago.’

  ‘She’s just popped up again.’

  Hal and Roger, who had been loafing on the deck, suddenly came to life. ‘Are we going to see a big eruption?’ inquired Roger. ‘According to the seismographs it’s so big that if it exploded in the middle of New York, there would be no New York.’ ‘Who reported it to Tokyo?’ Hal asked. ‘The captain of a fishing schooner. His ship was nearly buried under ashes. He escaped just in time.’ ‘Did they tell you anything more?’ ‘They’re sending their own exploration ship to have a look at it. Her name is the Kaiyo Maru. She’s already on the way with nine scientists and a crew of twenty-two. If we’re lucky we may catch up with her.’ ‘Did you say that the volcano is making an island?’ ‘Yes. There used to be an island there years ago, then it disappeared. Now a new island is being thrown up.’

  ‘Isn’t that unusual - for a submarine volcano to make an island?’

  ‘Not at all. Most of the islands in the Pacific were thrown up by submarine volcanoes. Even the coral islands rest on the rims of old volcanoes.’

  ‘And new ones are coming up all the time?’

  ‘Exactly. There are more than twenty islands in the Pacific now that did not exist fifty years ago. The Pacific, you know, is the most volcanic part of the globe. There are about three hundred active volcanoes in the world, and seven-eighths of them are in or around the Pacific.

  Probably there are a great many volcanoes beneath the sea that we don’t know about and every now and then one of them tosses up an island. Sometimes the island doesn’t last. It may disappear again.’

  ‘What makes it disappear?’

  ‘It may be made up mostly of volcanic ash, and in that case the waves will gradually wash it away. If it is made of solid lava it is more likely to stay. But even a solid island isn’t safe if there’s a volcano under it. The terrific forces in the volcano may push the island higher, or they may shrink and let the island drop beneath the waves.’

  Dr Dan picked up the binoculars and scanned the horizon ahead.

  ‘I see it!’ he exclaimed. ‘The column of smoke.’

  Roger grinned. ‘I think you’re kidding us, Dr Dan. You said it was two hundred miles away. Nobody can see two hundred miles.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. You can see a million miles.’

  ‘A million miles!’

  ‘Of course. How about the sun and the stars? They are millions of miles away but you can see them very plainly.’

  That gave Roger something to think about.

  ‘Now I suppose you’ll be asking me another question,’ said Dr Dan. ‘If we can see the smoke two hundred miles away, why can’t we see the Kaiyo Maru which is fifty miles or so ahead of us?’

  ‘Oh, I know the answer to that one,’ said Roger. The ship is too low - the curve of the earth hides it. The smoke cloud is very high.’

  ‘Right. At least two miles high.’

  ‘When do we get there?’

  ‘Perhaps early tomorrow morning. What speed are we making, Captain?’ ‘Seventeen knots.’

  ‘A wonderful little ship!’ said Dr Dan. The Lively Lady trembled as if with pleasure at this compliment. She vibrated like a harp with the pull of the wind on the sails. She flew over the waves like a flying fish.

  She was no ordinary fishing schooner. She did not carry the usual gaff mainsail. She was equipped with the fastest sail in the world, the triangular Marconi. There was no foresail. Instead, between the two masts, billowed two great staysails. A big jibsail bulged over her bow. She was built for speed and had won several cup races.

  They overhauled the Kaiyo Maru just before dark. The steam-driven vessel was plodding along at about ten knots. The Lively Lady skimmed past her like a bird. The boys were very proud of their swift ship.

  True, if the wind failed she would stand still, while the steamer would keep plodding along. But with the right wind the sailing ship was hard to beat.

  Passing close to the other ship, the boys lined the rail and waved. At the rail of the steamer stood the nine scientists and some of the crew. Compared with the Lively Lady, the steamer seemed so slow that Roger couldn’t help calling, ‘Get a horse!’

  If he had known that every man on that ship would be drowned before another day passed he would not have felt like joking. The Japanese at the steamer’s rail grinned back and

  shouted admiring comments on the appearance of the Lively Lady and its speed. Then their ship was left behind and the growing darkness slowly blotted it out.

  ‘We’ll be the first to get there!’ exulted Roger.

  There was little sleeping done that night. Every hour or so the boys came on deck to look ahead to the pillar of cloud and fire.

  As they drew nearer it seemed to grow larger and taller. It threw out arms and the top was shaped like a head, so that you could imagine it was a great giant breathing fire and fumes and getting ready to pounce upon the little sailing ship. The Lively Lady seemed very much alone now in this great black sea with the evil giant as high as the sky looming over it.

  Roger was no longer sure that he wanted to get there first. He wished now that the Lively Lady had slowed down so that they might have had the other ship for company.

  Blinding flashes of lightning ripped through the cloud and shot down into the sea. Suppose one of them should strike the Lively Lady! Thunder came in sudden smacks and whacks as if a dozen giants were clapping their hands. Along with this come-and-go thunder, caused by electrical discharges in the cloud, there was the steady thunder of the submarine volcano itself as it sent millions of tons of boiling lava and white-hot rocks spurting up into the sky.

  ‘How deep is that volcano under the sea?’ Roger asked Dr Dan.

  ‘We don’t know yet. From the way it’s behaving, I’d guess it to be perhaps three hundred feet down.’

  ‘So all that hot stuff has to shoot up through water three hundred feet deep?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Why doesn’t the water put out the fire?’ Roger grinned to himself. Now he thought he had asked one the doctor couldn’t answer.

  ‘That’s a good question,’ Dr Dan said. ‘Ordinarily water does put out fire. And it doesn’t take three hundred feet of water either. Just a spray of water may put out the fire in a burning house. But that’s because the fire isn’t very hot. It’s hot enough to burn wood, yes, but not hot enough to turn metal into liquid. The heat in the earth is at least ten times as great. It turns solid rock into liquid. When that blazing liquid shoots up through the water it changes every drop of water it touches into steam. So you see, instead of the water cooling the fire, the fire boils the water. Most of th
at great cloud is steam.’

  A zigzag dagger of lightning split the sky and struck the water within a few hundred yards of the Lively Lady.

  ‘I think we’re close enough,’ suggested Captain Ike. ‘How about heaving to until daylight?’ Dr Dan agreed.

  The Lively Lady came up into the wind. The staysails and jib were lowered and the mainsail flapped idly.

  It was a terrible two hours until daylight, the roaring and gigantic bubbling of the submarine volcano and the crash of thunder in the towering cloud made sleep impossible. The flashes of lightning in the cloud were like sudden fireworks. For an instant they lit up the sea for

  miles. Then the sea went black again. But the two-mile-high column always glowed with the light given off by the streams of white-hot lava shooting up into it.

  The Lively Lady was no longer moving forward, but she was not lying still.’ She hopped and leaped like a frightened deer. Every explosion of the volcano sent tidal waves rushing over the sea. They picked up the ship and tossed it into the air, then let it fall deep into a trough. They collided with the ocean’s own waves and sent up great jets of spray.

  Crash! The Worst explosion yet shook the sea.

  ‘I’m afraid that will start a big roller,’ said Dr Dan. ‘Better lash yourselves to the rail or the rigging.’

  They made themselves fast and waited. Several minutes passed.

  ‘Guess it was a false alarm,’ said Hal.

  ‘Don’t be too sure. It takes a little time for it to get here.’

  ‘Look!’ cried Roger. ‘What’s that coming?’

  It was like a moving wall. It towered black against the column of fire. It seemed as high as the masts. It was bending over the ship.

  The men curled themselves into balls to withstand the shock. The wall of water broke over them. Hal’s lashings were torn apart and he was swept across the deck to the rail. There he clung desperately. The ship lay over on her beam ends. Would she completely turn turtle?

  She would not. The brave little ship righted herself and the water drained away from her deck.

  ‘Boy, was that hot!’ cried Roger, when he could get his breath. ‘I feel like a boiled eel.’