Chapter 46 Forty-six create a volcanic eruption

The next day, February 17th, the rising sun awakened the sleepers on Montganam with its morning light.The Maori have been running back and forth at the foot of the mountain, never leaving their line of surveillance.As soon as the Europeans came out of the desecrated holy place, they were greeted by a wild clamor at the foot of the mountain. Everyone looked around, looked at the peaks in front, back, left, and right, at the deep valley still immersed in the morning mist, and at the Daobo Lake wrinkled by the morning wind. Everyone was eager to know about Paganel's new plan, and they all gathered around him, asking him with their eyes.

Paganel at once gratified the frightened curiosity of his traveling companions, My friends, this is the advantage of my plan, that if it fails to produce the effect I expect, even if it fails altogether, our situation will be no different. get worse.But my plan should be successful, it will definitely be successful! What is your plan?asked the major. My plan was that we should use the superstition of the natives to make this mountain our refuge, and escape from it.If I could make the bonechewer believe that we were punished for desecrating this holy place, that the wrath of heaven was upon us, and in short that we were killed by a catastrophe, think, would he not? To leave the mountain and go back to his village?

There is no doubt about that.Sir said. How do you want us to die?Lady Helene asked. Burned like blasphemers, my friends, the fire of justice is under our feet, let us let it out.Paganel replied. how?Do you want to build a volcano?Menger screamed. Yes, create an artificial volcano, a temporary volcano, a volcano where we can control the fire!The steam and ground fire down here are always trying to come out, and we artificially make them eject, do us a favor. That's a good idea, well thought out, Paganel.said the major. You see, we pretended to be set on fire by the New Zealand Vulcan to burn us, but in fact we were cleverly hidden in the burial chamber of Karatet; there to wait three days, four days, and if necessary Five days, that is to say, until the natives are convinced that we are dead and give up the siege.

But what if they wanted to prove our damnation?Mary said, what if they climb up the hill to see? No, my dear Mary, they will never do that.This mountain was forbidden by the gods, since it automatically burned the offenders to death, its gods are naturally more strict! This is really the best way, but we are afraid that the natives will keep staring at the foot of the mountain and we will run out of food on the mountain.But this possibility is very small, especially if we do very similarly, they will not leave. Our last move, when will we try it out?Lady Helene asked. Just tonight, in the darkest hour of the night.Paganel replied.

In this way, Paganel, you are a great genius. I am never blindly optimistic, but this time I guarantee you will succeed.Those rascals!Let us perform a miracle for them, so that their superstition will remain for a hundred years, and they cannot be converted to Christianity!This is also out of necessity, missionaries don't blame us! Paganel's plan thus went through, and indeed, with Maori superstition, it could and should have worked.All that remains is how to do it.The theme is really good, but it is very difficult to do.Will this volcano swallow those who dare to open the crater?As soon as steam, flames, and lava come out, can humans control and manipulate them?Was the whole conical summit going to sink into the flames?The jetting of ground fire was originally an absolute privilege of nature, but now man has reached out to manipulate this phenomenon.

Paganel had anticipated these difficulties, but he was going to be careful not to overdo it.Just make a fire-breathing look to deceive the Maori, and you can't really make a terrible thing like a volcanic eruption. How anxiously everyone has been waiting for this day!Can't wait until night!Everyone was counting the hours, and each hour seemed to go on forever.All preparations for escape were completed.The food in the tomb was divided into small packages that were not too bulky.There are also a few straw mats and weapons, all taken out of the tomb, which are enough to constitute people's light luggage.Of course, it goes without saying that all these preparations were done behind the fence without the natives knowing.

At six o'clock, O'Bill had a good supper ready.Fleeing in the deep valleys of this region, where and when can I eat again?No one can predict.Therefore, in order to prevent future hunger, everyone tries to eat as much as possible.The big dish in the middle is a few big rats caught by Wilson and steamed over water.This is New Zealand's rare wild game, but Mrs. Helen and Mary refused to eat it to death, while the male guests ate it like the Maori.The taste of the meat is really good, it can be said to be delicious.The few small animals were eaten up in one fell swoop, leaving only the bones.

Dusk came.The sun hid behind a dark cloud.The sky looked like a storm was about to break out, lightning flashed on the horizon, and thunder rumbled faintly in the depths of the cloudy sky. Paganel welcomes this storm very much, and it happens to assist his plan, to help him direct the show.The natives are very superstitious and terrified of this drastic change in nature.New Zealanders believe that Ray is a slave of God.Atou's angry roar, Dian is the angry eyes of the Great God.Therefore, thunder and lightning mean that God will personally punish these blasphemers.At eight o'clock, the top of the mountain was buried in dismal darkness.The sky drew up a layer of darkness, ready to set off the raging fire that Paganel was about to emit.The Maori could not see their captives.This is exactly the time to do it.

This has to be done quickly.Sir, Paganel, the major, Robert, O'Bill, and the two sailors set to work. The location of the vent was chosen at a distance of thirty paces from the Karatet chamber.Yes, this burial chamber must not let the flames spit out.This is very important, because once the tomb is burned, the gods of the mountain will also be wiped out.In one place Paganel saw a huge rock surrounded by rather thick steam.This large rock must have covered a small caldera naturally formed on the top of the round mountain, because the rock was too heavy to suppress the ground fire.If this big rock can be lifted up, the caldera will be unplugged, and steam and lava will be ejected.

The laborers who made the volcano pulled up a few piles in the tomb as levers to pry the big rock.Under their concerted efforts, the rock moved in a short while.They also dug a small trench for the rock, so that it could roll down the slope.The more they moved the rock, the more violently the soil beneath the boulder trembled. The faint sounds of flames rushing and hot steam boiling were flowing everywhere under the thinned crust.Those few bold laborers, like the gods who manipulated the fire in the myth, continued to work silently.After a while, a few cracks under the rock and a few bursts of hot air foretell that their place is already very dangerous.With one desperate effort they turned the rock up and rolled out of sight on the slope.

Immediately, the thin crust burst open.A fiery column of air shot into the sky with a startling clatter, while boiling springs and lava torrents rolled straight toward the Maori camps and the pits and valleys below. The conical summit trembled all over, and one might have thought it was sinking into some bottomless abyss.Glenarvan and his companions barely escaped the jet's reach.They hurriedly hid in the tomb, even running and running, they could not avoid splashing a few drops of spray water which was hot at ninety-four degrees.This water, at the beginning, only had some steamer gas, but after a while, it gave off a strong sulfur smell. At this time, mud, lava and volcanic debris mixed into a fiery mass.The torrents of many fires carved out fire paths on the mountainside.The nearby mountain peaks were all illuminated red by the flames, and the deep valleys were also shining with intense fire. All the natives got up, and the lava boiled in their camp, splashed on them, and made them howl.Those who were not burned by the fire were fleeing desperately, running towards the surrounding hills.Then, looking back in a daze, at the horrible phenomenon, at the volcano with its mouth wide open, at their great god angrily devouring those who desecrated the holy mountain.Occasionally, the splash of the jets dropped a little, and one could hear them shouting their incantations: God forbid!God forbid!God forbid! At this time, a large amount of steam, red-hot stones and lava came out of the crater.It was no longer a simple boiling spring, but a real volcano. Up to then, the fire from the ground had been erupting extremely violently. An hour after the volcano appeared, there were many streams of white-hot lava flowing on the mountainside.Swarms of rats can be seen running from their holes and leaving the scorched land. All night, the sky was blowing with high winds and torrential rain, and the top of the round hill had been belching fire with increasing intensity, which disturbed Glenarvan.The jets of fire constantly gnawed at the edge of the vent. The captives watched the fiery and frightening eruption attentively from behind the bars. morning has come.The volcano's fury has not abated.A large stream of thick pale yellow steam was mixed with the flames, and the molten slurry was rushing everywhere. Glenarvan kept squinting with his eyes, his heart was beating constantly, and he lay down in every crack in the fence, observing the movements of the natives. Those natives have fled to the nearby high ground, out of the scope of the volcanic eruption.Several bodies lay at the foot of the volcano, charred.A little farther, near the castle, lava had burned a score or so of the palisades, and they were still smoking.Groups of New Zealanders here and there looked up at the smoldering peak, showing a kind of superstitious terror. The Bonechewer came running among the warriors, and Glenarvan saw that it was him.The chief went all the way down from the unfired mountain to the foot of the mountain, but did not take a step up the slope. There, with his arms outstretched, like a wizard reciting a spell, he gestured to the mountain several times. The meaning of his grimaces is not difficult for everyone to guess.Sure enough, as Paganel expected, the bone gnawer has added a more severe divine prohibition to this holy mountain that acts for the heavens. After a while, the natives walked down the winding paths in single file, and went back to their castle. They're all gone, they've given up their posts!Thank God!Our plot worked!My dear Helen, my brave traveling companions, we are dead and buried, but tonight in the night we shall rise, we shall leave our grave, we shall escape from this barbaric The Horde is gone! It is hard to imagine the joy that filled the tomb at that time.Hope was restored in everyone's heart.These determined travelers forgot about the past, forgot about the future, lost in the success of the moment.In fact, it is not easy to walk from this desolate place to the place where the Europeans live.But as soon as they tricked the bone gnawer, they thought they had escaped from all the native New Zealanders! At least the Major, he made no secret of his extreme contempt for the Maori, and he used all his curse words to describe the Maori.Paganel was no worse at cursing than he was.The two of them yelled at the Maori endlessly. It will take a whole day to really get out of this dangerous situation.Everyone used this day to discuss the escape plan.Paganel had kept as a treasure his map of New Zealand, on which he could now find the safest route. After discussion, these fugitives decided to go east to Barent Bay.It was through some strange areas, but these areas looked very uninhabited.Our group of travelers, who had become adept at coping with the difficulties of nature and avoiding its obstacles, feared no more than the Maori now, and so they sought only to avoid them and go to the east coast.On the east coast, missionaries once built several mission stations.And, hitherto, that part of the North Island had not been ravaged by war, nor would mobile troops of the natives search it there.As for the distance from Lake Dauph to Barent Bay, it is estimated to be 160 kilometers, and it takes ten days to walk 16 kilometers every day.This road is bound to suffer.But in this brave caravan, no one cares about their footsteps.Once at the mission station, travelers can take a good rest there and wait for the opportunity to go to Auckland, because Auckland is always on their mind. After the above points were decided, everyone continued to observe the movement of the natives. Until night, there was no more natives at the foot of the mountain. When night fell, there was no campfire showing that there were still Maori people under the round-topped mountain. trace.The road is now clear. At nine o'clock, through the night, Sir gave the signal to depart.His traveling companions and he took Karatet's things, armed with arms and provisions, and began to descend the heavy hills.Menger and Wilson led the way, listening and watching as they walked.They stopped at the slightest sound, and scouted at the slightest light.Everyone can be said to be slipping down the terrain of the hillside, so as to avoid being discovered. Seventy meters from the top of the mountain, Meng Geer and Wilson reached the most dangerous section of the ridge held by the natives.If unfortunately, the Maori are more cunning than the fugitives, pretending to retreat to lure them into a trap, if unfortunately the Maori are not deceived by the scene of the volcanic eruption, then they will suddenly appear here.Despite his confidence, Glenarvan trembled uncomfortably, despite Paganel's sneers.It will take ten minutes to cross this section of the ridge, and the safety of his entire caravan will be decided within these ten minutes.Lady Helene clutched his arm, and he felt her heart beating too. But he definitely didn't want to back down.Menger didn't have this idea either.The young captain led the whole crew, and under the cover of night, they climbed up the narrow ridge. Sometimes a stone was touched and rolled straight to the foot of the mountain, and he stopped.If the natives were still lying in ambush at the foot of the mountain, these strange noises would definitely trigger fierce shooting from both sides. At this time, the fleeing people were crawling like snakes on the sloping and narrow ridge, and of course they were not walking fast.When Menger reached the lowest point of the ridge, he was less than eight meters away from the flat mountain top where the natives occupied last night.After passing here, the ridge will rise, the slope is quite steep, and a quarter of a kilometer up is a scrub forest. The lowest section of the ridge was finally passed without incident.Passengers began to climb up quietly.The grove was invisible, but he knew it was there, and as long as there was no ambush there, Glenarvan considered himself safe.However, he noticed that from this moment on, they were out of the scope of God's prohibition.The rising ridge does not belong to Mount Mengganamu, but to the large mountain system that rises to the east of Lake Daupo.Therefore, here we must not only prevent the natives from shooting, but also prevent them from rushing to fight. For a full ten minutes, this small caravan crawled gently towards the flat ridge ahead.Meng Geer still couldn't see the dark undergrowth, but it was estimated that the woods should be less than seventy meters away.Suddenly he stopped and almost stepped back.He seemed to hear a noise in the shadows ahead.His hesitation made all his traveling companions stop. He stayed there without moving, which surprised the people behind. They waited in such panic!We cannot describe with pen and ink.Don't you have to run back again, and then go back to the original top of the mountain? However, Meng Geer didn't hear the noise again, and began to climb up the narrow road along the ridge again. After a while the undergrowth was faintly visible in the darkness.After walking a few more steps, they reached the bush, and all the fugitives gathered and squatted under the shade of the leaves.