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24 - Lost! - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four lost. No words in any human language
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  Speaker 1: can depict my utter despair. I was literally buried alive,
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  Speaker 1: with no other expectation before me but to live in
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  Speaker 1: all the slow, horrible torture of hunger and thirst. Mechanically,
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  Speaker 1: I crawled about feeling the dry, arid rock. Never, to
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  Speaker 1: my fancy, had I ever felt anything so dry. But
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  Speaker 1: I frantically asked myself, how had I lost the course
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  Speaker 1: of the flowing stream. There could be no doubt it
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  Speaker 1: had ceased to flow in the gallery in which I
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  Speaker 1: now was. Now I began to understand the cause of
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  Speaker 1: the strange silence which prevailed when last I tried if
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  Speaker 1: any appeal from my companions might perchance reach my ear.
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  Speaker 1: It so happened that when I first took an imprudent
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  Speaker 1: step in the wrong direction, I did not perceive the
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  Speaker 1: absence of the all important stream. It was now quite
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  Speaker 1: evident that when we halted, another tunnel must have received
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  Speaker 1: the waters of the little Torrent, and that I had
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  Speaker 1: unconsciously entered a different gallery. To what unknown depths had
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  Speaker 1: my companions gone? Where was I how to get back?
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  Speaker 1: Clue or landmark? There was absolutely none. My feet left,
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  Speaker 1: no signs on the granite and shingle. My brain throbbed
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  Speaker 1: with agony as I tried to discover the solution of
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  Speaker 1: this terrible problem. My situation, after all sophistry and reflection,
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  Speaker 1: had finally to be summed up in three awful words.
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  Speaker 1: Lost lost, lost, lost. At a depth which, to my
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  Speaker 1: finite understanding appeared to be immeasurable, these thirty leagues of
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  Speaker 1: the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like
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  Speaker 1: the globe of the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself
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  Speaker 1: crushed by the awful weight. It was indeed a position
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  Speaker 1: to drive the sanest man to madness. I tried to
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  Speaker 1: bring my thoughts back to the things of the world
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  Speaker 1: so long forgotten. It was with the greatest death difficulty
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  Speaker 1: that I succeeded in doing so. Hamburg, the house on
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  Speaker 1: the Cornistrasse, my dear cousin Gretchen, All that world which
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  Speaker 1: had before vanished like a shadow, floated before my now
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  Speaker 1: vivid imagination. There they were before me, but how unreal.
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  Speaker 1: Under the influence of a terrible hallucination, I saw all
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  Speaker 1: the incidents of our journey passed before me like the
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  Speaker 1: scenes of a panorama. The ship and its inmates, Iceland, m.
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  Speaker 1: Friedrichson and the great summit of Mount Sneffels. I said
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  Speaker 1: to myself that if in my position I retain the
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  Speaker 1: most faint and shadowy outline of a hope, it would
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  Speaker 1: be a sure sign of approaching delirium. It were better
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  Speaker 1: to give way wholly to despair. In fact, did I
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  Speaker 1: but reason, with calmness and philosophy. What human power was
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  Speaker 1: there in existence able to take me back to the
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  Speaker 1: surface of the earth, and ready to to split asunder,
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  Speaker 1: to rend in twain those huge and mighty vaults which
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  Speaker 1: stand above my head? Who could enable me to find
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  Speaker 1: my road and regain my companions. In sensate folly and
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  Speaker 1: madness to entertain even a shadow of hope, Oh Uncle,
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  Speaker 1: was my despairing cry. This was the only word of
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  Speaker 1: reproach which came to my lips. For I thoroughly understood
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  Speaker 1: how deeply and sorrowfully the worthy Professor would regret my loss,
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  Speaker 1: and how in his turn he would patiently seek for me.
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  Speaker 1: When I at last began to resign myself to the
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  Speaker 1: fact that no further aid was to be expected from man,
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  Speaker 1: and knowing that I was utterly powerless to do anything,
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  Speaker 1: for my own salvation. I kneeled with earnest fervor and
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  Speaker 1: asked assistance from heaven. The remembrance of my innocent childhood,
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  Speaker 1: the memory of my mother, known only in my infancy,
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  Speaker 1: came welling forth from my heart. I had no recourse
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  Speaker 1: to prayer, and little as I had a right to
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  Speaker 1: be remembered by him whom I had forgotten in the
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  Speaker 1: hour of prosperity, and whom I so tardily invoked, I
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  Speaker 1: prayed earnestly and sincerely. This renewal of my youthful faith
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  Speaker 1: brought about a much greater amount of calm, and I
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  Speaker 1: was enabled to concentrate all my strength and intelligence on
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  Speaker 1: the terrible realities of my unprecedented situation. I had about
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  Speaker 1: me that which I had at first wholly forgotten three
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  Speaker 1: days' provisions. Moreover, my water bottle was quite full. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: the one thing which it was impossible to do was
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  Speaker 1: to remain alone. Try to find my companions. I must
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  Speaker 1: at any price. But which course should I take? Should
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  Speaker 1: I go upwards again descend? Doubtless it was right to
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  Speaker 1: retrace my steps in an upward direction. By doing this
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  Speaker 1: with care and coolness, I must reach the point where
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  Speaker 1: I had turned away from the rippling stream. I must
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  Speaker 1: find the fatal bifurcation or fork. Once at this spot,
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  Speaker 1: once the river at my feet, I could at all
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  Speaker 1: events regain the awful crater of Mount Sneffels. Why had
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  Speaker 1: I not thought of this before? This, at last was
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  Speaker 1: a reasonable hope of safety. The most important thing then
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  Speaker 1: to be done was to discover the bed of the Hansbach.
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  Speaker 1: After a slight meal and a draft of water, I
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  Speaker 1: rose like a giant, refreshed, Leaning heavily on my pole,
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  Speaker 1: I began the ascent of the gallery. The slope was
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  Speaker 1: very rapid and rather difficult, but I advanced hopefully and carefully,
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  Speaker 1: like a man who at last is making his way
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  Speaker 1: out of a forest and knows there is only one
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  Speaker 1: road to follow. During one whole hour, nothing happened to
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  Speaker 1: check my progress. As I advanced, I tried to recollect
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  Speaker 1: the shape of the tunnel, to recall to my memory
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  Speaker 1: certain projections of rocks, to persuade myself that I had
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  Speaker 1: followed certain winding routes before. But no one particular sign
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  Speaker 1: could I bring to mind, and I was soon forced
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  Speaker 1: to allow that this gallery would never take me back
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  Speaker 1: to the point at which I had separated myself from
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  Speaker 1: my companions. It was absolutely without issue, a mere blind
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  Speaker 1: alley in the earth. The moment at length came, when
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  Speaker 1: facing the solid rock, I knew my fate and fell
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  Speaker 1: inanimate on the arid floor. To describe the horrible state
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  Speaker 1: of despair and fear into which I then fell would
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  Speaker 1: now be vain and impossible. My last hope. The courage
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  Speaker 1: which had sustained me, drooped before the sight of this
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  Speaker 1: pitiless granite rock. Lost in a vast labyrinth, the sinuosities
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  Speaker 1: of which spread in every direction without guide, clew, or compass,
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  Speaker 1: I knew it was a vain and useless task to
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  Speaker 1: attempt flight. All that remained to me was to lie
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  Speaker 1: down and die. To lie down and die, the most
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  Speaker 1: cruel and horrible of deaths. In my state of mind,
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  Speaker 1: the idea came into my head that one day, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: when my fossil bones were found, their discovery so far
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  Speaker 1: below the level of the earth, might give rise to
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  Speaker 1: solemn and interesting scientific discussions. I tried to cry aloud,
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  Speaker 1: but hoarse, hollow and inarticulate sounds alone could make themselves
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  Speaker 1: heard through my parched lips. I literally panted for breath.
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  Speaker 1: In the midst of all these horrible sources of anguish
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  Speaker 1: and despair, a new horror took possession of my soul.
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  Speaker 1: My lamp, by falling down, had got out of order.
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  Speaker 1: I had no means of repairing it. Its light was
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  Speaker 1: already becoming paler and paler, and soon would expire. With
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  Speaker 1: a strange sense of resignation and despair, I watched the
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  Speaker 1: luminous current in the coil getting less and less. A
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  Speaker 1: procession of shadows moved, flashing along the granite wall. I
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  Speaker 1: scarcely dared to lower my eyelids, fearing to lose the
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  Speaker 1: last spark of this fugitive light. Every instant it seemed
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  Speaker 1: to me that it was about to vanish, and to
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  Speaker 1: leave me forever in utter darkness. At last, one final
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  Speaker 1: trembling flame remained in the lamp. I followed it with
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  Speaker 1: all my power of vision. I gasped for breath. I
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  Speaker 1: concentrated upon it all the power of my soul. As
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  Speaker 1: upon the last scintillation of light I was ever destined
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  Speaker 1: to see, and then I was to be lost forever
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  Speaker 1: in sumerian and tenebrous shadows. A wild and plaintive cry
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  Speaker 1: escaped my lips on Earth during the most profound and
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  Speaker 1: comparatively complete darkness. Light never allows a complete destruction and
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  Speaker 1: extinction of its power. Light is so diffuse, so subtle,
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  Speaker 1: that it permeates everywhere, and whatever little may remain the
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  Speaker 1: retina of the eye will succeed in finding it. In
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  Speaker 1: this place nothing, the absolute obscurity made me blind in
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  Speaker 1: every sense. My head was now wholly lost. I've raised
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  Speaker 1: my arms trying the effects of the feeling in getting
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  Speaker 1: against the cold stone wall. It was painful. In the
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  Speaker 1: extreme madness must have taken possession of me. I knew
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  Speaker 1: not what I did. I began to run, to fly,
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  Speaker 1: rushing at haphazard in this inextricable labyrinth, always going downwards,
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  Speaker 1: running wildly underneath the terrestrial crust, like an inhabitant of
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  Speaker 1: the subterranean furnace. Is screaming, roaring, howling until bruised by
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  Speaker 1: the pointed rocks, falling and picking myself up, all covered
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  Speaker 1: with blood, seeking madly to drink the blood which dripped
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  Speaker 1: from my torn features, mad because this blood only trickled
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  Speaker 1: over my face, and watching always for this horrid wall
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  Speaker 1: which were presented to me, the fearful obstacle against which
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  Speaker 1: I could not dash my head. Where was I going?
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  Speaker 1: It was impossible to say I was perfectly ignorant of
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  Speaker 1: the matter. Several hours passed in this way. After a
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  Speaker 1: long time, having utterly exhausted my strength, I fell a
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  Speaker 1: heavy inert mass along the side of the tunnel and
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  Speaker 1: lost conscious business. End of Chapter twenty four.