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18 - The Wrong Road! - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen, the wrong road. Next day, our departure took
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  Speaker 1: place at a very early hour. There was no time
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  Speaker 1: for the least delay. According to my account, we had
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  Speaker 1: five days hard work to get back to the place
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  Speaker 1: where the galleries divided. I can never tell all the
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  Speaker 1: sufferings we endured upon our return. My uncle bore them
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  Speaker 1: like a man who has been in the wrong, that is,
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  Speaker 1: with concentrated and suppressed anger, Hans with all the resignation
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  Speaker 1: of his pacific character. And I I confess that I
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  Speaker 1: did nothing but complain and despair. I had no heart
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  Speaker 1: for this bad fortune. But there was one consolation. Defeat
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  Speaker 1: at the outset would probably upset the whole journey. As
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  Speaker 1: I had expected from the first Our supply of water
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  Speaker 1: gave completely out on our first day's march. Our proof
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  Speaker 1: of liquids was reduced to our supply of sheedom. But
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  Speaker 1: this horrible, nay, I will say, this infernal liquor burned
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  Speaker 1: the throat, and I could not even bear the sight
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  Speaker 1: of it. I found the temperature to be stifling. I
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  Speaker 1: was paralyzed with fatigue. More than once, I was about
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  Speaker 1: to fall insensible to the ground. The whole party then
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  Speaker 1: halted and the worthy icelander and my excellent uncle did
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  Speaker 1: their best to console and comfort me. I could, however,
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  Speaker 1: plainly see that my uncle was contending painfully against the
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  Speaker 1: extreme fatigues of our journey and the awful torture generated
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  Speaker 1: by the absence of water. At length, the time came
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  Speaker 1: when I ceased to recollect anything, when all was one awful, hideous,
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  Speaker 1: fantastic dream. At last, on Tuesday, the seventh of the
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  Speaker 1: month of July, after crawling on our hands and knees
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  Speaker 1: for many hours, more dead than alive, we reached the
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  Speaker 1: point of junction between the galleries. I lay like a
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  Speaker 1: log an inert mass of human flesh on the arid
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  Speaker 1: lava soil. It was then ten in the morning. Hans
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  Speaker 1: and my uncle, leaning against the wall, tried to nibble
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  Speaker 1: away at some pieces of biscuit, while deep groans and
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  Speaker 1: sighs escaped from my scorched and swollen lips. Then I
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  Speaker 1: fell off into a kind of deep lethargy. Presently I
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  Speaker 1: felt my uncle approach and lift me up tenderly in
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  Speaker 1: his arms. Poor boy, I heard him say, in a
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  Speaker 1: tone of deep commiseration. I was profoundly touched by these words,
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  Speaker 1: being by no means accustomed to signs of womanly weakness
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  Speaker 1: in the professor. I caught his trembling hands in mine
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  Speaker 1: and gave them a gentle pressure. He allowed me to
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  Speaker 1: do so without resistance, looking at me kindly all the time.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes were wet with tears. I then saw him
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  Speaker 1: take the gourd, which he wore at his side. To
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  Speaker 1: my surprise, or rather to my stupefaction, he placed it
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  Speaker 1: to my lips. Drink, my boy, he said, Was it
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  Speaker 1: possible my ears had not deceived me? Was my uncle mad?
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  Speaker 1: I looked at him with I am sure, quite an
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  Speaker 1: idiotic expression. I could not believe him. I too much
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  Speaker 1: feared the counteraction of disappointment. Drink he said again. Had
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  Speaker 1: I heard aright before? However, I could ask myself the
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  Speaker 1: question a second time. A mouthful of water cooled my
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  Speaker 1: parched lips and throat one mouthful. But I do believe
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  Speaker 1: it brought me back to life. I thanked my uncle
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  Speaker 1: by clasping my hands. My heart was too full to speak. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: said he one mouthful of water. The very last, do
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  Speaker 1: you hear, my boy? The very last? I have taken
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  Speaker 1: care of it at the bottom of my bottle, as
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  Speaker 1: the apple of my eyes. Twenty times, a hundred times
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  Speaker 1: I have resisted the fearful desire to drink it. But no,
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  Speaker 1: no hurry, I saved it for you, my dear uncle,
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  Speaker 1: I exclaimed, and the big tears rolled down my hot
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  Speaker 1: and feverish cheeks. Yes, my poor boy, I knew that
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  Speaker 1: when you reached this place, this cross road in the earth,
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  Speaker 1: you would fall down half dead. And I saved my
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  Speaker 1: last drop of water in order to restore you. Thanks,
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  Speaker 1: I cried, Thanks from my heart. As little as my
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  Speaker 1: thirst was really quenched, I I had nevertheless partially recovered
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  Speaker 1: my strength. The contracted muscles of my throat relaxed, and
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  Speaker 1: the inflammation of my lips in some measure subsided. At
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  Speaker 1: all events, I was able to speak well. I said,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no doubt as to what we have
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  Speaker 1: to do. Water has utterly failed us our journeys. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: at an end, let us return. While I spoke. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: my uncle evidently avoided my face. He held down his head.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes were turned in every possible direction but the
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  Speaker 1: right one. Yes, I continued, getting excited by my own words.
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  Speaker 1: We must go back to Sneffels. May Heaven give us
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  Speaker 1: strength to enable us once more to revisit the light
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  Speaker 1: of day. Would that we now stood on the summit
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  Speaker 1: of the crater? Go back, said my uncle, speaking to himself.
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  Speaker 1: And must it be so? Go back? Yes, and without
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  Speaker 1: losing a single moment, I vehemently cried. For some moment
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  Speaker 1: there was silence under that dark and gloomy vault. So,
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  Speaker 1: my dear, hurry, said the professor, in a very singular
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  Speaker 1: tone of voice. Those few drops of water have not
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  Speaker 1: sufficed to restore your energy and courage. Courage, I cried.
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  Speaker 1: I see that you are quite as downcast as before,
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  Speaker 1: and still give way to discouragement and despair. What then
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  Speaker 1: was the man made of? And what other projects were
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  Speaker 1: entering his fertile and odacious prain? You are not discouraged, sir?
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  Speaker 1: What give up? Just as we are on the verge
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  Speaker 1: of success? He cried. Never never shall it be said
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  Speaker 1: that Professor Hartwick retreated. Then we must make up our
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  Speaker 1: minds to per I cried, with a helpless sigh. No, hurry,
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  Speaker 1: my voice, certainly not go leave me. I am very
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  Speaker 1: far from desiring your death. Take hands with you, I
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  Speaker 1: will go on alone. You ask us to leave you,
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  Speaker 1: leave me, I say, I have undertaken this dangerous and
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  Speaker 1: perilous adventure. I will carry it to the end, or
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  Speaker 1: I will never return to the surface of mother Earth.
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  Speaker 1: Go hurry once more, I say to you. Go. My uncle,
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  Speaker 1: as he spoke, was terribly excited. His voice, which before
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  Speaker 1: had been tender, almost womanly, became harsh and menacing. He
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be struggling with desperate energy against the impossible.
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  Speaker 1: I did not wish to abandon him at the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of that abyss, while on the other hand, the instinct
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  Speaker 1: of preservation told me to fly. Meanwhile, our guide was
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  Speaker 1: looking on with profound calmness and indifference. He appeared to
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  Speaker 1: be an unconcerned party, and yet he perfectly well knew
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  Speaker 1: what was going on between us. Our gestures sufficiently indicated
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  Speaker 1: the different roads each wished to follow, and which each
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  Speaker 1: tried to influence the other to undertake. But Hans appeared
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  Speaker 1: not to take the slightest interest in what was really
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  Speaker 1: a question of life and death for us all, but waited,
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  Speaker 1: quite ready to pay the signal which should say go aloft,
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  Speaker 1: or to resume his desperate journey into the interior of
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  Speaker 1: the earth. How then, I wished with all my heart
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  Speaker 1: and soul, that I could make him understand my words,
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  Speaker 1: my representations, my size and groans. The earnest accents in
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  Speaker 1: which I should have spoken would have convinced that cold,
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  Speaker 1: hard nature. Those fearful dangers and perils of which the
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  Speaker 1: stolid guide had no idea. I would have pointed them
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  Speaker 1: out to him. I would have, as it were, made
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  Speaker 1: him see and feel. Between us. We might have convinced
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  Speaker 1: the obstinate professor. If the worst had come to the worst,
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  Speaker 1: we could have compelled him to return to the summit
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  Speaker 1: of Sneffelds. I quietly approached Hans. I caught his hand
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  Speaker 1: in mine. He never moved a muscle. I indicated to
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  Speaker 1: him the road to the top of the crater. He
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  Speaker 1: remained motionless. My pounting form, my haggard countenance must have
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  Speaker 1: indicated the extent of my sufferings. The Icelander gently shook
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  Speaker 1: his head and pointed to my uncle Master. He said,
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  Speaker 1: the word is Icelandic as well as English. The Master,
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  Speaker 1: I cried beside myself with fury, Madman, no, I tell
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  Speaker 1: you is not the master of our lives. We must fly,
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  Speaker 1: We must drag him with us. Do you hear me?
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  Speaker 1: Do your stand me, I say, I have already explained
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  Speaker 1: that I held hands by the arm. I tried to
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  Speaker 1: make him rise from his seat. I struggled with him
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  Speaker 1: and tried to force him away. My uncle now interposed,
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  Speaker 1: my good Henry b calm. He said, you will obtain
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  Speaker 1: nothing from my devoted follower. Therefore listen to what I
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  Speaker 1: have to say. I folded my arms as well as
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  Speaker 1: I could, and looked at my uncle full in the face.
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  Speaker 1: This wretched want of water, he said, is the sole
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  Speaker 1: obstacle to the success of my project. In the entire
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  Speaker 1: gallery made of lavaskist and coal, it is true we
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  Speaker 1: found not one liquid molecule. It is quite possible that
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  Speaker 1: we may be more fortunate in the Western tunnel. My
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  Speaker 1: sole reply was to shake my head with an air
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  Speaker 1: of deep incredulity. Listen to me to the end, said
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  Speaker 1: the professor in his well known lecturing voice. While you
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  Speaker 1: lay yonder without life for motion. I undertook a conottering
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  Speaker 1: journey into the conformation of this other gallery. I have
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  Speaker 1: discovered that it goes directly downwards into the bowels of
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  Speaker 1: the earth, and in a few hours will take us
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  Speaker 1: to the old Granitik formation. In this we shall undoubtedly
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  Speaker 1: find innumerable springs. The nature of the rock makes this
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  Speaker 1: a mathematical certainty, and instinct agreece with logic to say
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  Speaker 1: that it is so. Now, this is the serious proposition
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  Speaker 1: which I have to make to you. When Christopher Columbus
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  Speaker 1: asked of his men three days to discover the land
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  Speaker 1: of Promise, his men, ill, terrified and hopeless, yet gave
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  Speaker 1: him three days, and the new world was discovered. Now, I,
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  Speaker 1: the Christopher Columbus of this subterranean region, only ask of
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  Speaker 1: you one more day. If when that time is expired,
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  Speaker 1: I have not found the water of which we are
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  Speaker 1: in search, I swear to you I will give up
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  Speaker 1: my mighty enterprise and return to the Earth's surface. Despite
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  Speaker 1: my irritation and despair. I knew how much it cost
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  Speaker 1: my uncle to make this proposition, and to hold such
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  Speaker 1: conciliatory language. Under the circumstances, What could I do but yield? Well,
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  Speaker 1: I cried, Let it be as you wish, and may
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  Speaker 1: Heaven reward your superhuman energy. But as unless we discover water,
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  Speaker 1: our hours are numbered. Let us lose no time, but
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  Speaker 1: go ahead. End of Chapter eighteen