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25 - The Whispering Gallery - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Daily Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five, The Whispering Gallery. When at last I
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  Speaker 1: came back to a sense of life and being. My
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  Speaker 1: face was wet, but wet as I soon knew with tears,
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  Speaker 1: how long this state of insensibility lasted. It is quite
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  Speaker 1: impossible for me now to say I had no means
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  Speaker 1: left to me of taking any account of time. Never
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  Speaker 1: since the creation of the world had such a solitude
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  Speaker 1: as mine existed. I was completely abandoned. After my fall,
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  Speaker 1: I lost much blood. I felt myself flooded with the
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  Speaker 1: life giving fluid. My first sensation was perhaps a natural one,
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  Speaker 1: Why was I not dead? Because because I was alive,
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  Speaker 1: there was something left to do. I tried to make
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  Speaker 1: up my mind to think no longer. As far as
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  Speaker 1: I was able, I drove away all ideas, and utterly,
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  Speaker 1: overcome by pain and grief, I crouched against the granite wall.
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  Speaker 1: I just commenced to feel the fainting coming on again,
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  Speaker 1: and the sensation that this was the last struggle before
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  Speaker 1: complete annihilation. When on a sudden a violent uproar reached
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  Speaker 1: my ears. It had some resemblance to the prolonged rumbling
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  Speaker 1: voice of thunder, and I clearly distinguished sonorous voices lost
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  Speaker 1: one after the other in the distant depths of the gulf.
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  Speaker 1: Whence came this noise, Naturally, it was to be supposed
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  Speaker 1: from new phenomena which were taking place in the bosom
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  Speaker 1: of the solid mass of Mother Earth, the explosion of
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  Speaker 1: some gas's vapor, or the fall of some solid of
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  Speaker 1: the granite or of the rock. Again, I listened with
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  Speaker 1: deep attention. I was extremely anxious to hear if this
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  Speaker 1: strange and inexplicable sound was likely to be renewed. A
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  Speaker 1: whole quarter of an hour elapsed in painful expectation. Deep
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  Speaker 1: and solemn silence reigned in the tunnel, so still that
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  Speaker 1: I could hear the beatings of my own heart. I waited,
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  Speaker 1: waited with a strange kind of hopefulness. Suddenly my ear,
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  Speaker 1: which leaned accidentally against the wall, appeared to catch, as
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  Speaker 1: it were, the faintest echo of a sound. I thought
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  Speaker 1: that I heard, vague, incoherent and distant voices. I quivered
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  Speaker 1: all over with excitement and hope. It must be hallucination,
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  Speaker 1: I cried, it cannot be, it is not true. But no,
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  Speaker 1: By listening more attentively, I really did convince myself that
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  Speaker 1: what I heard was truly the sound of human voices.
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  Speaker 1: To make any meaning out of the sound, however, was
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  Speaker 1: beyond my power. I was too weak even to hear distinctly. Still,
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  Speaker 1: it was a positive fact that someone was speaking of
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  Speaker 1: that I was quite certain. There was a moment of fear,
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  Speaker 1: A dread fell upon my soul, that it might be
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  Speaker 1: my own words brought back to me by a distant echo.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps without knowing it, I might have been crying aloud.
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  Speaker 1: I resolutely closed my lips and once more placed my
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  Speaker 1: ear to the huge granite wall. Yes, for certain, it was,
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  Speaker 1: in truth the sound of human voices. I now, by
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  Speaker 1: the exercise of great determination, dragged myself along the sides
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  Speaker 1: of the cavern until I reached a point where I
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  Speaker 1: could hear more distinctly. But though I could detect the sound,
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  Speaker 1: I could only make out uncertain, strange and incomprehensible words.
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  Speaker 1: They reached my ear as if they had been spoken
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  Speaker 1: in a low tone, murmured, as if it were afar off.
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  Speaker 1: At last I made out the word for laurad, repeated
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  Speaker 1: several times in a tone betokening great mental anguish and sorrow.
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  Speaker 1: What could this word mean? And who was speaking it?
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  Speaker 1: It must be either my uncle or the guide Hans.
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  Speaker 1: If therefore I could hear them, they must surely be
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  Speaker 1: able to hear be Help, I cried at the top
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  Speaker 1: of my voice. Help, I am dying. I then listened,
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  Speaker 1: with scarcely a breath. I panted with the slightest sound
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  Speaker 1: in the darkness, a cry, a sigh, a question, But
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  Speaker 1: silence reigned supreme, no answer Kane. In this way, some
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  Speaker 1: minutes passed A whole flood of ideas flashed through my mind.
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  Speaker 1: I began to fear that my voice, weakened by sickness
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  Speaker 1: and suffering, could not reach my companions, who were in
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  Speaker 1: search for me.
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  Speaker 2: It must be, they said, I cried. Who else could,
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  Speaker 2: by any possibility, be buried one hundred miles below the
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  Speaker 2: level of the earth. The mere supposition was preposterous. I began,
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  Speaker 2: therefore to listen again with the most breathless attention. As
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  Speaker 2: I moved my ears along the side of the place
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  Speaker 2: I was in, I found a mathematical point, as it were,
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  Speaker 2: where the voices appeared to attain their maximum of intel.
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  Speaker 2: The word for Lorad again distinctly reached my ear. Then
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  Speaker 2: came again that rolling noise like thunder, which had awakened
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  Speaker 2: me out of my torpur. I begin to understand, I
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  Speaker 2: said to myself, after some little time devoted to reflection.
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  Speaker 2: It is not through the solid mass that the sound
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  Speaker 2: reaches my ears. The walls of my cavernous retreat are
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  Speaker 2: of solid granite, and the most fearful explosion would not
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  Speaker 2: make uproar enough to penetrate them. The sound must come
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  Speaker 2: along the gallery itself. The place I was in must
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  Speaker 2: possess some peculiar acoustic properties of its own. Again I listened,
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  Speaker 2: and this time, yes, this time I heard my name
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  Speaker 2: distinctly pronounced cast as it were into space. It was
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  Speaker 2: my uncle, the professor, who was speaking. He was in
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  Speaker 2: conversation with the guide, and the word which had so
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  Speaker 2: often reached my ear, for lurad was a Danish word.
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  Speaker 2: Then I understood it all. In order to make myself heard,
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  Speaker 2: I too must speak as it were, along the side
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  Speaker 2: of the gallery, which would carry the sound of my voice,
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  Speaker 2: just as the wire carries the electric fluid from point
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  Speaker 2: to point. But there was no time to lose. If
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  Speaker 2: my companions were only to remove a few feet from
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  Speaker 2: where they stood, the acoustic effect would be over. My
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  Speaker 2: whispering gallery would be destroyed. I again, therefore crawled towards
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  Speaker 2: the wall and said as clearly and distinctly as I could,
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  Speaker 2: Uncle Hardwig. I then awaited a reply. Sound does not
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  Speaker 2: possess the property of traveling with such extreme rapidity. Besides,
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  Speaker 2: the density of the air at that depth from light
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  Speaker 2: and motion was very far from adding to the rapidity
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  Speaker 2: of circulation. Several seconds elapsed, which, to my excited imagination,
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  Speaker 2: appeared ages, and these words reached my eager ears and
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  Speaker 2: moved my wildly beating heart. Harry, my boy, is that
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  Speaker 2: you a short delay between question and answer?
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  Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, where are you lost? And your lamp out?
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  Speaker 1: But the guiding stream is lost? Keep your courage, Harry,
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  Speaker 1: We will do our best. One moment, my uncle, I cried,
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  Speaker 1: I have no longer strength to answer your questions. But
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  Speaker 1: for Heaven's sake, do you continue to speak to me?
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  Speaker 1: Absolute silence, I felt, would be annihilation. Keep up your courage,
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  Speaker 1: said my uncle. As you are so weak, do not speak.
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  Speaker 1: We have been searching for you in all directions. But
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  Speaker 1: by going upwards and downwards in the gallery, my dear boy,
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  Speaker 1: I had begun to give over all hope, and you
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  Speaker 1: can never know what bitter tears of sorrow and regret
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  Speaker 1: I have shed at last, supposing you to be still
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  Speaker 1: on the road beside Hansbach. We again descended firing off
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  Speaker 1: guns as signals. Now, however, we have found you, and
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  Speaker 1: that our voices reach each other, it may be a
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  Speaker 1: long time before we actually meet. We are conversing by
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  Speaker 1: means of some extraordinary acoustic arrangement of the labyrinth. But
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  Speaker 1: do not despair, my dear boy. It is something gained
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  Speaker 1: even to hear each other. While he was speaking, my
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  Speaker 1: brain was at work reflecting a certain undefined oh vague
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  Speaker 1: and shapeless as yet made my heart beat wildly. In
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  Speaker 1: the first place, it was absolutely necessary for me to
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  Speaker 1: know one thing. I once more therefore leaned my head
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  Speaker 1: against the wall, which I almost touched with my lips,
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  Speaker 1: and again spoke, Uncle, my boy, was his answer, after
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  Speaker 1: a few moments. Is it the utmost consequence that we
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  Speaker 1: should know how far we are asunder? That is not difficult.
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  Speaker 1: You have your chronumeter at hand, I asked, certainly, Well,
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  Speaker 1: take it into your hand, pronounced my name, noting exactly
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  Speaker 1: the second at which you speak. I will reply as
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  Speaker 1: soon as I hear you your words, and you will
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  Speaker 1: then note exactly the moment at which my reply reaches you,
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  Speaker 1: very good, and the mean time between my question and
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  Speaker 1: your answer will be the time occupied by my voice
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  Speaker 1: in reaching you. That is exactly what I mean, Uncle,
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  Speaker 1: was my eager reply. Are you ready? Yes, well, make ready.
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  Speaker 1: I am about to pronounce your name, said the professor.
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  Speaker 1: I applied my ear close to the sides of the
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  Speaker 1: cavernous gallery, and as soon as the word Harry reached
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  Speaker 1: my ear, I turned round, and, placing my lips to
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  Speaker 1: the wall, repeated the sound forty seconds, said my uncle.
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  Speaker 1: There has elapsed forty seconds between the two words. The
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  Speaker 1: sound therefore takes twenty seconds to ascend. Now, allowing a
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  Speaker 1: one thousand and twenty feet for every second, we have
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  Speaker 1: twenty thousand, four hundred feet, a league and a half
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  Speaker 1: and one eighth. These words fell on my soul like
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  Speaker 1: a kind of death knell. A league and a half,
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  Speaker 1: I'm muttered in a low and despairing voice. It shall
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  Speaker 1: be got over, my boy, cried my uncle in a
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  Speaker 1: cheery tone. Depend on us. But do you know whether
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  Speaker 1: to ascend or descend? I asked faintly enough. We have
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  Speaker 1: to dis end, and I will tell you why you
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  Speaker 1: have reached a vast open space, a kind of bare crossroad,
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  Speaker 1: from which galleries diverge in every direction. That in which
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  Speaker 1: you are now lying must necessarily bring you to this point. Four.
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  Speaker 3: It appears that all these mighty vissures, these fractures of
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  Speaker 3: the globe's interior, radiate from the vast cavern which we
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  Speaker 3: at this moment occupy. Rouse yourself, then have courage and
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  Speaker 3: continue your out well if you can, if not, drag
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  Speaker 3: yourself along slide.
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  Speaker 1: If nothing else is possible, the slow must be rather rapid,
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  Speaker 1: and you will find strong arms to receive you at
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  Speaker 1: the end of your journey. Make a start like a
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  Speaker 1: good fellow. These words served to rouse some kind of
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  Speaker 1: courage in my sinking frame. Farewell for the present, good uncle,
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  Speaker 1: I am about to take my departure. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: I start, our voices will cease to commingle. Farewell then
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  Speaker 1: until we meet again, I do harry until we say welcome.
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  Speaker 1: Sure were the last words which reached my anxious ears
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  Speaker 1: before I commenced my weary and almost hopeless journey. This
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  Speaker 1: wonderful and surprising conversation which took place through the vast
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  Speaker 1: mass of the Earth's labyrinth these words exchanged, the speakers
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  Speaker 1: being about five miles apart. Ended with hopeful and pleasant expressions,
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  Speaker 1: I breathed one more prayer to Heaven. I sent up
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  Speaker 1: words of thanksgiving, believing in my inmost heart that he
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  Speaker 1: had led me to the only place where the voices
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  Speaker 1: of my friends could reach my ears. This apparently astounding
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  Speaker 1: acoustic mystery is easily explainable by simple natural laws. It
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  Speaker 1: aroused from the conductibility of the rock. There are many
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  Speaker 1: instances of this singular propagation of sound which are not
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  Speaker 1: perceptible in its less mediate positions. In the interior gallery
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  Speaker 1: of Saint Paul's and amid the curious caverns in Sicily,
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  Speaker 1: these phenomena are observable. The most marvelous of them all
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  Speaker 1: is known as the ear of Dionysius. These memories of
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  Speaker 1: the past, of my early reading and studies came fresh
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  Speaker 1: to my thoughts. Moreover, I began to reason that if
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  Speaker 1: my uncle and I could communicate at such great a distance,
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  Speaker 1: no serious obstacle could exist between us. All I had
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  Speaker 1: to do was to follow the direction whence the sound
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  Speaker 1: had reached me, and logically putting it, I must reach him.
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  Speaker 1: If my strength did not fail. I accordingly rose to
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  Speaker 1: my feet. I soon found, however, that I could not walk,
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  Speaker 1: that I must drag myself along the slope. As I expected,
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  Speaker 1: was very rapid, but I allowed myself to slip down.
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  Speaker 1: Soon the rapidity of the decis and began to assume
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  Speaker 1: frightful proportions, and menaced a fearful fall. I clutched at
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  Speaker 1: the sides, I grasped at projections of rocks. I threw
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  Speaker 1: myself backwards, all in vain. My weakness was so great
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  Speaker 1: I could do nothing to save myself. Suddenly Earth failed me.
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  Speaker 1: I was first launched into a dark and gloomy void.
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  Speaker 1: I then struck against the projecting asperities of a vertical gallery,
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  Speaker 1: a perfect well. My head bounded against a pointed rock,
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  Speaker 1: and I lost all knowledge of existence. As far as
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  Speaker 1: I was concerned, death had claimed me for his own.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty five