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39 - The Explosion and its Results - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty nine, the explosion and its results. The next day,
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  Speaker 1: which was the twenty seventh of August, was a date
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  Speaker 1: celebrated in our wondrous subterranean journey. I never think of
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  Speaker 1: it even now, but I shudder with horror. My heart
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  Speaker 1: beats wildly at the very memory of that awful day.
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  Speaker 1: From this time forward, our reason, our judgment, our human
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  Speaker 1: ingenuity have nothing to do with the course of events.
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  Speaker 1: We are about to become the plaything of the great
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  Speaker 1: phenomena of the Earth. At six o'clock we were all
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  Speaker 1: up and ready. The dreeded moment was arriving when we
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  Speaker 1: were about to seek an opening into the interior of
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  Speaker 1: the earth by means of gunpowder. What would be the
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  Speaker 1: consequences of breaking through the crust of the earth? I
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  Speaker 1: beg that it might be my duty to set fire
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  Speaker 1: to the mine. I looked upon it as an honor.
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  Speaker 1: This task. Once performed, I could rejoin my friends upon
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  Speaker 1: the raft, which had not been unloaded. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: we were already we were to sail away to some
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  Speaker 1: distance to avoid the consequences of the explosion, the effects
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  Speaker 1: of which would certainly not be concentrated in the interior
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  Speaker 1: of the earth. The slow match we calculated to burn
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  Speaker 1: for about ten minutes more or less before it reached
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  Speaker 1: the chamber in which the great body of powder was confined.
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  Speaker 1: I should therefore have plenty of time to reach the
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  Speaker 1: raft and put off to a safe distance. I prepared
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  Speaker 1: to execute myself a lotted task. Not it must be
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  Speaker 1: confessed without considerable emotion. After a hearty repast, my uncle
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  Speaker 1: and the hunter guide embarked on board the raft, while
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  Speaker 1: I remained alone upon the desolate shore. I was provided
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  Speaker 1: with a lantern, which was to enable me to set
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  Speaker 1: fire to the wick of the infernal machine. Go, my boy,
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  Speaker 1: said my uncle, and Heaven be with you. But come
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  Speaker 1: back as soon as you can. I shall be all impatience.
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  Speaker 1: Be easy on that matter, I replied, there is no
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  Speaker 1: fear of my delaying on the road. Having said this,
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  Speaker 1: I advanced toward the opening of the somber gallery. My
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  Speaker 1: heart beat wildly. I opened my lantern and ceased the
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  Speaker 1: extremity of the wick. The professor, who was looking on,
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  Speaker 1: held his chronometer in his hand. Are you ready, cried
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  Speaker 1: he quite ready? Well, then fire away. I hastened to
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  Speaker 1: put the light to the wick, which crackled and sparkled,
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  Speaker 1: hissing and spitting like a serpent. Then, running as fast
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  Speaker 1: as I could, I returned to the shore. Get on board,
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  Speaker 1: my lad and you, Hans, show off, cried my uncle.
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  Speaker 1: My vigorous application of his pool Hans sent us flying
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  Speaker 1: over the water. The raft was quite twenty fathoms distant.
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  Speaker 1: It was a moment of palpitating interest, of deep anxiety.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle, the professor, never took his eyes off the chronometer.
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  Speaker 1: Only five minutes more, he said, in a low tone,
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  Speaker 1: Only four, Only three. My pulse went a hundred to
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  Speaker 1: the minute. I could hear my heart beating. Only two
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  Speaker 1: one now. Then mountains of granite crumbled beneath the power
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  Speaker 1: of man. What happened after that? As to the terrific
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  Speaker 1: roar of the explosion, I do not think I heard it,
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  Speaker 1: But the form of the rocks completely changed in my eyes.
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  Speaker 1: They seemed to be drawn aside like a curtain. I
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  Speaker 1: saw a fathomly, a bottomless abyss, which yawned beneath the
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  Speaker 1: turgid waves. The sea, which seemed suddenly to have gone mad,
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  Speaker 1: then became one great mountainous mass, upon the top of
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  Speaker 1: which the raft rose perpendicularly. We were all thrown down.
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  Speaker 1: In less than a second, the light gave place to
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  Speaker 1: the most profound obscurity. Then I felt all solid support
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  Speaker 1: give way, not to my feet, but to the raft itself.
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  Speaker 1: I thought it was going bodily down a tremendous well.
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  Speaker 1: I tried to speak to question my uncle. Nothing could
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  Speaker 1: be heard but the roaring of the mighty waves. We
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  Speaker 1: clung together in utter silence, despite the awful darkness, despite
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  Speaker 1: the noise, the surprise, the emotion. I thoroughly understood what
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  Speaker 1: had happened. Beyond the rock which had been blown up,
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  Speaker 1: there existed a mighty abyss. The explosion had caused a
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  Speaker 1: kind of earthquake in the soil, broken by fissures and rents.
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  Speaker 1: The gulf, thus suddenly thrown open, was about to swallow
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  Speaker 1: the inland sea, which transformed into a mighty torrent, was
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  Speaker 1: dragging us with it. Only one idea filled my mind.
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  Speaker 1: We were utterly and completely lost. One hour, two hours,
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  Speaker 1: what more, I cannot say, passed in this manner. We
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  Speaker 1: sat close together, elbow touching elbow, knee touching knee. We
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  Speaker 1: held one another's hands. Not to be thrown off the raft.
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  Speaker 1: We were subjected to the most violent shocks whenever our
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  Speaker 1: soul dependence a frail wooden raft struck against the rocky
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  Speaker 1: sides of the channel. Fortunately for us, these concussions became
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  Speaker 1: less and less frequent, which made me fancy that the
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  Speaker 1: gallery was getting wider and wider. There could be now
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  Speaker 1: no doubt that we had chanced upon the road once
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  Speaker 1: followed by Sacknussom, But instead of going down in a
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  Speaker 1: proper manner, we had, through our own imprudence, drawn a
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  Speaker 1: whole sea with us. These ideas presented themselves to my
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  Speaker 1: mind in a very vague and obscure manner, I felt,
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  Speaker 1: rather than reasoned. I put my ideas together only confusedly,
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  Speaker 1: while spinning along like a man going down a waterfall.
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  Speaker 1: To judge by the air which, as it were, whipped
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  Speaker 1: my face, we must have been rushing at a perfectly
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  Speaker 1: lightning rate. To attempt, under these circumstances to light a
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  Speaker 1: torch was simply impossible, and the last remains of our
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  Speaker 1: electric machine, of our Rumkorff coil, had been destroyed during
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  Speaker 1: the fearful explosion. I was therefore very much confused to
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  Speaker 1: see at last a bright light shining close to me,
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  Speaker 1: the calm countenance of the guide seemed to gleam upon me.
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  Speaker 1: The clever and patient hunter had succeeded in lighting the lantern,
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  Speaker 1: and though in the keen and thorough draft the flame
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  Speaker 1: flickered and vacillated, and was nearly put out, it served
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  Speaker 1: partially to dissipate the awful obscurity. The gallery into which
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  Speaker 1: we had entered was very wide. I was therefore quite
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  Speaker 1: right in that part of my conjecture. The insufficient light
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  Speaker 1: did not allow us to see both of the walls.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, the slope of waters which was
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  Speaker 1: carrying us away was far greater than that of the
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  Speaker 1: most rapid river of America. The whole surface of the
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  Speaker 1: stream seemed to be composed of liquid arrows darted forward
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  Speaker 1: with extreme violence and power. I can give no idea
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  Speaker 1: of the impression it made upon me. The raft at
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  Speaker 1: times caught in certain whirlpools and rushed forward, yet turned
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  Speaker 1: on itself all the time. How it did not upset
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  Speaker 1: I shall never be able to understand. When it approached
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  Speaker 1: the sides of the gallery, I took care to throw
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  Speaker 1: upon them the light of the lantern, and I was
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  Speaker 1: able to judge of the rapidity of motion by looking
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  Speaker 1: at the projecting masses of rock, which, as soon as seen,
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  Speaker 1: were again invisible. So rapid was our progress that points
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  Speaker 1: of rock at the considerable distance one from the other
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  Speaker 1: appeared like portions of transverse lines, which enclosed us in
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  Speaker 1: a kind of net like that of a line of
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  Speaker 1: telegraphic wires. I believe we were now going at a
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  Speaker 1: rate of not less than a hundred miles an hour.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle and I looked at one another with wild
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  Speaker 1: and haggard eyes. We clung convulsively to the stump of
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  Speaker 1: the mast, which, at the moment when the catastrophe took place,
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  Speaker 1: had snapped short off. We turned our backs as much
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  Speaker 1: as possible to the wind, in order not to be
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  Speaker 1: stifled by a rapidity of motion which nothing human could
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  Speaker 1: face and live. And still, the long, monotonous hours went on.
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  Speaker 1: The situation did not change in the least, though a
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  Speaker 1: discovery I suddenly made seemed to complicate it very much.
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  Speaker 1: When we had slightly recovered our equilibrium, I proceeded to
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  Speaker 1: examine our cargo. I then made the unsatisfactory discovery that
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  Speaker 1: the greater part of it had utterly disappeared. I became
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  Speaker 1: alarmed and determined to do discover what were our resources.
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  Speaker 1: My heart beat at the idea, but it was absolutely
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  Speaker 1: necessary to know on what we had to depend. With
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  Speaker 1: this view, I took the lantern and looked around. Of
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  Speaker 1: all our former collection of nautical and philosophical instruments, there
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  Speaker 1: remained only the chronometer and the compass. The ladders and
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  Speaker 1: ropes were reduced to a small piece of rope fastened
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  Speaker 1: to the stump of the mast. Not a pickaxe, not
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  Speaker 1: a crowbar, not a hammer, and far worse than all,
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  Speaker 1: no food, not enough for one day. This discovery was
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  Speaker 1: a prelude to a certain and horrible death. Seated gloomily
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  Speaker 1: on the raft, clasping the stump of the mast mechanically,
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  Speaker 1: I thought of all I had read as to sufferings
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  Speaker 1: from starvation. I remembered everything that history had taught me
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  Speaker 1: on the subject, and I shuddered at the remembrance of
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  Speaker 1: the agonies to be endured. I maddened at the prospects
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  Speaker 1: of enduring the miseries of starvation. I persuaded myself that
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  Speaker 1: I must be mistaken. I examined the cracks in the raft,
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  Speaker 1: I poked between the joints and beams. I examined every
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  Speaker 1: possible hole and corner. The result was simply nothing. Our
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  Speaker 1: stock of provisions consisted of nothing but a piece of
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  Speaker 1: dry meat and some soaked and half moldy biscuits. I
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  Speaker 1: gazed around me, scared and frightened. I could not understand
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  Speaker 1: the awful truth. And yet of what consequence was it
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  Speaker 1: in regard to any new danger. Supposing that we had
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  Speaker 1: had provisions for months and even for years, how could
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  Speaker 1: we ever get out of the awful abyss into which
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  Speaker 1: we were being hurled by the irresistible torrent we had
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  Speaker 1: let loose. Why should we trouble ourselves about the sufferings
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  Speaker 1: and tortures to be endured from hunger when death stared
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  Speaker 1: us in the face under so many other swifter and
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  Speaker 1: perhaps even more horrid forms. It was very doubtful, under
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  Speaker 1: the circumstances in which we were placed, if we should
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  Speaker 1: have time to die of inanition, but the human frame
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  Speaker 1: is singularly constituted. I know not how it was, but
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  Speaker 1: from some singular hallucination of mind I forgot the real,
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  Speaker 1: serious and immediate danger to which we were exposed. To
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  Speaker 1: think of the menaces of the future which appeared before
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  Speaker 1: us in all the naked terror. Besides after all suggested hope.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps we might finally escape the fury of the raging
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  Speaker 1: torrent and once more revisit the glimpses of the moon
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  Speaker 1: on the surface of our beautiful mother Earth. How was
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  Speaker 1: it to be done? I had not the remotest idea
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  Speaker 1: where were we to come out, No matter so that
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  Speaker 1: we did. One chance in a thousand is always a chance.
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  Speaker 1: While death from hunger gave us not even the faintest
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  Speaker 1: glimpse of hope. It left to the imagination nothing but
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  Speaker 1: blank horror, without the faintest chance of escape. I had
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  Speaker 1: the greatest mind to reveal all to my uncle, to
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  Speaker 1: explain to him the extraordinary and wretched position to which
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  Speaker 1: we were reduced, in all order that between the two
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  Speaker 1: we might make a calculation as to the exact space
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  Speaker 1: of time which remained for us to live. It was,
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  Speaker 1: it appeared to me, the only thing to be done.
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  Speaker 1: But I had the courage to hold my tongue, to
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  Speaker 1: ignore at my entrails. Like the spartan boy, I wished
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  Speaker 1: to leave him all his coolness. At this moment, the
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  Speaker 1: light of the lantern slowly fell and at last went out.
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  Speaker 1: The weik had fully burnt to an end, the obscurity
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  Speaker 1: became absolute. It was no longer possible to see through
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  Speaker 1: the impenetrable darkness. There was one torch left, but it
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  Speaker 1: was impossible to keep it alight. Then, like a child,
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  Speaker 1: I shut my eyes that I might not see the darkness.
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  Speaker 1: After a great lapse of time, the rapidity of our
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  Speaker 1: journey in creased. I could feel it by the rush
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  Speaker 1: of air upon my face. The slope of the waters
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  Speaker 1: was excessive. I began to feel that we were no
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  Speaker 1: longer going down a slope. We were falling. I felt,
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  Speaker 1: as one does in a dream, going down, bodily falling, falling, falling.
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  Speaker 1: I felt that the hands of my uncle and hands
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  Speaker 1: were vigorously clasping my arms. Suddenly, after a lapse of
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  Speaker 1: time scarcely appreciable, I felt something like a shock. The
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  Speaker 1: raft had not struck a hard body, but had suddenly
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  Speaker 1: been checked in its course a water spout. A liquid
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  Speaker 1: column of water fell upon us. I felt suffocating. I
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  Speaker 1: was being drowned. Still, the sudden inundation did not last.
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  Speaker 1: In a few seconds, I felt myself once more able
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  Speaker 1: to breathe. My uncle and Hans pressed my arms, and
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  Speaker 1: the raft carried us. All three away end of chapter
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine,