Works of Jules Verne/Five Weeks in a Balloon/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
A RARE SERVANT
Doctor Ferguson had a man-servant who rejoiced in the name of Joe. An excellent fellow, entirely devoted to his master, and serving him with a boundless attention. Sometimes he even anticipated his orders, and carried them out with the greatest intelligence. Never grumbling, and always in good humor, people said that, had he been made on purpose, he could not have been better.
Ferguson placed himself in Joe's hands entirely and rightly. Rare and honest Joe! A servant who orders your dinner exactly to your taste, who packs your portmanteau and never forgets the shirts and socks, who keeps your keys and your secrets, and never gives up either.
But what a master the doctor was to Joe! With what respect and confidence he welcomed his decisions! When Ferguson had spoken, it would be folly to reply. All that he thought was right; everything he said was correct; all that he ordered to be done, feasible; all he undertook was possible; all that he accomplished, magnificent! You might have cut Joe in pieces, which would have been, doubtless, very unpleasant, but he would not have changed his opinion respecting his master. Thus, when the doctor broached the project of crossing Africa in a balloon, Joe looked upon the feat as already accomplished; no obstacles existed for him. As soon as the doctor had resolved to set out, he would be there with his faithful servant of course; for the brave lad, without ever having mentioned the subject, knew very well that he would be of the party. He would, besides, be able to render important service, in consequence of his activity and intelligence. If it had been necessary to appoint a professor of gymnastics to the monkeys in the Zoological Gardens, who are pretty lively now, Joe would certainly have obtained the situation. To jump, climb, to impel himself through the air, to execute a thousand almost impossible antics, was child's play to Joe.
If Ferguson was the head and Kennedy the arm, Joe was certainly the right hand. He had already traveled a great deal with his master, and possessed some smattering of science suitable to his position, but he distinguished himself above all by a philosophic calmness, and a charming talent for looking on the bright side. Everything to him was easy, logical, and natural, and consequently he never complained nor swore.
Besides these attributes he possessed a most astonishing range of vision. He, equally with Moestlin, Kepler's teacher, enjoyed the curious faculty of being able to see the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye, and to count fourteen stars in the Pleiades, which last are of the ninth magnitude. He was not proud of this at all; on the contrary, he would salute you respectfully, and, on occasion, he could make use of his eyes to some purpose.
With the confidence Joe displayed towards the doctor, it is not astonishing that frequent discussions would arise between Kennedy and the worthy domestic, with all due regard to their relative positions.
One doubted, the other had faith; one represented a clear-sighted prudence, the other, blind confidence. So the doctor was situated between skepticism and belief, and, I am bound to add, he paid no attention to either.
"Well, Mr. Kennedy," said Joe.
"Well, my lad."
"The time is approaching. It seems that we are about to set off to the moon."
"You mean the land of the moon, which is not quite so far, but quite sufficiently dangerous; so be easy in your mind."
"Dangerous! with a man like Doctor Ferguson?"
"I do not wish to dissipate your delusions, my good Joe, but his enterprise is simple madness. He will never enter upon it."
"Not go? Then you haven't seen the balloon in the workshop of Messrs. Mitchell, in the Borough?"
"I shall take very good care not to go to see it."
"Then you will lose a splendid sight, sir. What a beautiful thing it is; what a lovely shape, and what a charming car! How jolly we shall all be in it!"
"Then you have really made up your mind to accompany your master?"
"I!" replied Joe decisively. "I would go wherever he pleased. As if I should ever let him go alone when we have been round the world together. Who would there be to assist him when he was fatigued if I were not there? Whose strong hand to help him over a precipice? Who would nurse him if he were to fall ill? No, Mr. Richard, Joe will aways be at his post beside the doctor, or rather, I should say, all round him."
"You are a brave fellow."
"Besides, you will come with us," said Joe.
"Oh, of course," said Kennedy, "that is to say, I shall accompany you with the view to stop you at the last moment from putting such folly into execution. I will follow the doctor as far as Zanzibar in the hope that he may even then be dissuaded from his mad project."
"With all due respect to you, Mr. Kennedy, you will not have the slightest effect My master is not one of your hair-brained sort. He has been pondering over this undertaking for a long time, and once his resolution is taken, the devil himself cannot compel him to change his mind."
"That remains to be proved," said Kennedy.
"Don't you flatter yourself with any such idea," continued Joe. " Besides, it is very important that you should come too. A sportsman like yourself will be in his very element in Africa. So you see for every reason you will not regret your journey."
"No, certainly. I shall not regret it if this idiotic scheme can ever be carried out."
"By-the-bye," said Joe, "do you know that this is the day to be weighed?"
"What do you mean by weighed? "
"Well, weighed–you and I and my master."
"What, like jockeys?"
"Yes, like jockeys. Only be assured you will not be obliged to train if you are too stout. They will take you as you are."
"I shall certainly not allow myself to be weighed," said the Scot with some warmth.
"But, sir, it is necessary for the balloon that you should."
"Well, the balloon must do without, that's all."
"Oh, very well, and if in consequence of wrong estimates the balloon should not be able to take us———"
"Oh, I don't mean that, of course."
"Well, shall we, Mr. Kennedy? My master will be coming to look for us in a moment."
"I shall not go," said Kennedy.
"I am sure you would not wish to annoy him."
"I cannot help that."
"Capital," cried Joe, laughing; "you only say that because he is not here, but when he comes in and says to you, 'Dick,' (begging your pardon, sir) 'Dick, I want to know exactly what you weigh,' you will go, take my word for it."
"I tell you I shall not."
At this moment the doctor entered the study where this conversation had been carried on. He looked towards Dick, who did not feel quite at his ease.
"Dick," said the doctor, "come with Joe, will you, I want to ascertain what you two weigh."
"But———" began Kennedy.
"You needn't take off your hat–come along."
And Kennedy went accordingly.
They presented themselves at the workshop of Messrs. Mitchell, where a steel-yard had been got ready. It was absolutely necessary that the doctor should know the weight of his companions, so as to be able to ascertain the floating power of his balloon. He requested Dick to get upon the platform of the scales; he did so without resisting, but he muttered, "Very well, but this commits me to nothing."
"One hundred and fifty-three pounds," said the doctor, writing the weight on his note-book.
"Am I too heavy?" said Kennedy.
"Oh dear no, Mr. Kennedy," said Joe; "besides, I am so light that it will equalize the matter."
As he said this, Joe took his place with alacrity on the machine. He was very nearly upsetting the whole thing in his excitement, and he posed himself after the attitude of the Duke of Wellington as Achilles in Hyde Park, and was very grand even without the buckler. "One hundred and twenty pounds," wrote the doctor.
"Ha, ha!" cried Joe, with a radiant satisfaction. Why he smiled he never could have explained.
"Now it is my turn," said Ferguson; and he entered 135 lbs. on his own account. "We three," he added, "do not weigh more than 400 lbs."
"But, sir," said Joe, "if it were necessary I could starve myself a little, and come down twenty pounds or so."
"There will be no necessity for that, my lad," replied the doctor; "you may eat as much as you like, and here is half-a-crown, so that you may indulge your tastes a little."