Latest / Daily Classic Science Fiction Books / 23 - Alone - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

Transcript

23 - Alone - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Daily Classic Science Fiction Books

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three alone. It must in all truth be
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: confessed things as yet had gone well, and I should
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: have acted in bad tastes to have complained if the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: true medium of our difficulties did not increase, it was
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: within the range of possibility that we might ultimately reach
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the end of our journey. Then what glory would be ours?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I began, in the newly aroused our door of my
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: soul to speak enthusiastically to the Professor. Well, was I serious?
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The whole state in which we existed was a mystery,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and it was impossible to know whether or not I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: was earnest. For several days after our memorial halt, the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: slopes became more rapid, Some were even of a most
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: frightful character, almost vertical, so that we were forever going
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: down into the solid interior mass. During some days we
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: actually descended a league and a half, even two leagues
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: towards the center of the earth. The descents were sufficiently perilous,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and while we were engaged in them, we learned fully
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: to appreciate the marvelous coolness of our guide hands. Without
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: him we should have been wholly lost. The grave and
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: impassable icelander devoted himself to us with the most incomprehensible
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: sang fluid and ease, and thanks to him many a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: dangerous pass was got over where But for him we
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: should inevitably have stuck fast. His silence increased every day.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I think that we began to be influenced by this
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: peculiar trait in his character. It is certain that the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: inanimate objects by which you are surrounded have a direct
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: action on the brain. It must be that a man
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: who shuts himself up between four walls must lose the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: faculty of associating ideas and words. How many persons condemned
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to the horrors of solitary confinement have gone mad simply
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: because the thinking faculties have lain dormant. During the two
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: weeks that followed our last interesting conversation, there occurred nothing
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: worthy of being especially recorded. I have, while writing these
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: memoirs taxed my memory in vain for one incident of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: travel during this peculiar period. But the next event to
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: be related is terrible. Indeed, its very memory even now
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: makes my soul shudder and my blood run cold. It
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: was on the seventh of August our constant and successive
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: descents had taken us quite thirty leagues into the interior
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: of the earth. That is to say that there were
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: above us thirty leagues nearly one hundred miles of rocks
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and oceans and continents and towns, to say nothing of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: living inhabitants. We were in a southeasterly direction, about two
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: hundred leagues from Iceland. Now the Memorial Day, the tunnel
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: had begun to assume an almost horizontal course. I was,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: on this occasion walking in front. My uncle had charge
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of one of Rumakhoff's coils. I had possession of the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: other by means of its light. I was busy examining
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the different layers of granite. I was completely absorbed in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: my work. Suddenly halting and turning round, I found that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I was alone. Well thought I to myself, I have
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: certainly been walking too fast, or else Hans and my
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: uncle have stopped to rest. The best thing I can
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: do is to go back and find them. Luckily, there
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: is very little assent to tire me. I accordingly retraced
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: my steps, and while doing so, walked for at least
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an hour. Rather uneasy, I paused and
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: looked eagerly around. Not a living soul, I called aloud.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: No reply, My voice was lost amid the myriad cavernous
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: echoes it aroused. I began for the first time to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: feel seriously uneasy. A cold shivers shook my whole body,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and perspiration chill and terrible burst upon my skin. I
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: must be calm, I said, speaking aloud, as boys whistled
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to drive away fear. There can be no doubt that
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I shall find my companions. There cannot be two roads.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It is certain that I was considerably ahead. All I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: have to do is to go back. Having come to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: this determination, I ascended the tunnel for at least half
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: an hour, unable to decide if I had ever seen
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: certain landmarks before. Every now and then I paused to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: discover if any loud appeal was made to me, well,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: knowing that in that dense and intensified atmosphere, I should
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: hear it a long way off. But no, The most
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: extraordinary silence reigned in this immense gallery. Only the echoes
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of my own footsteps could be heard. At last, I stopped.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I could scarcely realize the fact of my isolation. I
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was quite willing to think that I had made a mistake,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: but not that I was lost. If I had made
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: a mistake, I find my way. If lost, I shuddered
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to think of it. Come come, said I to myself.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Since there is only one road, and they must come
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: by it, we shall at last meet. All I have
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to do is still go upwards. Perhaps, however, not seeing me,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and forgetting I was ahead, they may have gone back
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: in search of me. Still, even in this case, if
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I make haste, I shall get up to them. There
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: can be no doubt about the matter. But as I
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: spoke these last words aloud, it would have been quite
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: clear to any listener had there been one, that I was,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: by no means convinced of the fact. Moreover, in order
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to associate together these simple eyes DEAs, and to reunite
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: them under the form of reasoning, required some time. I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: could not at all once bring my brain to think.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Then another dread doubt fell upon my soul. After all
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: was I had. Of course I was Hans was no
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: doubt following behind, preceded by my uncle, I perfectly recollected his,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: having stopped for a moment to strap his baggage to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: his shoulder, I now remembered this trifling detail. It was
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I believe just at that very moment that I had
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: determined to continue my route again, thought I, reasoning as
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: calmly as possible, there is another sure means of not
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: losing my way, a thread to guide me through the labyrinth,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: subterraneous retreat, one which I had forgotten, my faithful river.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: This course of reasoning roused my drooping spirits, and I
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: resolved to resume my journey without further delay. No time
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: was to be lost. It was at this moment that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I had reason to bless the thoughtfulness of my uncle
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: when he refused to allow the ider hunter to close
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the orifices of the hot spring, that small fissure in
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the great mass of granite. This beneficent spring, after having
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: saved us from thirst during so many days, would now
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: enable me to regain the right road. Having come to
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: this mental decision, I made up my mind before I
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: started upwards that abolition would certainly do me a great
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: deal of good. I stopped to plunge my hands and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: forehead in the pleasant water of the hans Box Stream,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: blessing its presence as a certain consolation. Conceive my horror
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and stupefication. I was treading a hard, dusty shingly road
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: of Granite. The stream on which I reckoned had wholly disappeared.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty three,