Steampunk Prime_ A Vintage Steampunk Reader - Mike Ashley [40]
The British Government and the Royal Geographical Society of London were sending out a couple of vessels — one a superannuated whaler, and the other a hopelessly obsolete cruiser, which had narrowly escaped experimental bombardment — to the frozen land of Antarctic. A splendid donation to the funds of the expedition had procured a passage in the cruiser for the adventurers and about ten tons of baggage, the ultimate use of which was little dreamt of by any other member of the expedition.
The great secret was broken to Brenda about a week before the starting of the expedition. Her uncle explained the theory of the project to her, and Arthur Princeps added the footnotes, as it were. Whatever she thought of it, she betrayed no sign either of belief or disbelief; but when the Professor had finished, she turned to Princeps and said very quietly, but with a most eloquent glow in those big, grey eyes into which he had often looked so longingly —
“And you are really going on this expedition, Mr. Princeps? You are going to run the risk of probable starvation and more than probable destruction; and, in addition to that, you must be spending a great deal of money to do it — you who have money enough to buy everything that the world can sell you?”
“What the world can sell, Miss Haffkin — or, in other words, what money can buy — has very little value beyond the necessaries of life. It is what money cannot buy, what the world has not got to sell, that is really precious. I suppose you know what I mean,” he said, putting his hands into his pockets and turning to stare in an unmeaning way out of the window. “But I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to get back on to that old subject, I can assure you.”
“And you really are going on this expedition?” She said, with a deliciously direct inconsequence which, in a beautiful Doctor of Philosophy, was quite irresistible.
“Of course I will. Why not? If we find that there really is a tunnel through the earth, and jump in at the South Pole and come out at the North, and take a series of electro-cinematograph photographs of the crust and core of the earth, we shall have done something that no one else has ever thought about. There ought to be some millions in it, too, besides the glory.”
“And suppose you don’t? Suppose this wonderful vessel of uncle’s gets launched into this bottomless pit, and doesn’t come out properly at the other end? Suppose your explosive just misses fire at the wrong moment, and when you’ve nearly reached the North Pole you go back again past the centre, and so on, and so on, until, perhaps, two or three centuries hence, your vessel comes to rest at the centre with a couple of skeletons inside it — -what then?”
“We should take a medicine-chest with us, and I don’t suppose we should wait for starvation.”
“And so you seriously propose to stake your life and all your splendid prospects in the world on the bare chance of accomplishing an almost impossibly fantastic achievement?”
“That’s about what it comes to, I suppose. I don’t really see how a man in my position could spend his money and risk his life much better.”
There was a little silence after this, and then Brenda said, in a somewhat altered voice —
“If you really are going, I should like to come, too.”
“You could only do that, Miss Haffkin, on one condition.”
“And that is — ?”
“That you say ‘Yes’ now to a question you said ‘No’ to nine months ago. You can call it bribery or corruption, or whatever you like; but there it is. On the other hand, as I have quite made up my mind about this expedition, I might as well tell you that if I don’t get back, you will hear of something to your advantage by calling on my lawyers.”
“I would rather go and work in a shop than do that!” She said. “Still, if you’ll let me come with you, I will.”
“Then the ‘No’ is ‘Yes’?” he said, taking a half turn towards her and catching hold of her hand.
“Yes,” she said, looking him frankly in the eyes.