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30 - Terrific Saurian Combat - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, Terrific Saurian Combat, Saturday, August fifteenth. The sea
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  Speaker 1: still retains its uniform monotony, the same lead and new,
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  Speaker 1: the same eternal glare from about, no indication of land
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  Speaker 1: being in sight. The horizon appears to retreat before us,
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  Speaker 1: more and more as we advance. My head still dull
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  Speaker 1: and heavy from the effects of my extraordinary dream, which
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  Speaker 1: I cannot as yet banish from my mind. The Professor,
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  Speaker 1: who has not dreamt, is, however, in one of his
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  Speaker 1: morose and unaccountable humors, spends his time in scanning the
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  Speaker 1: horizon at every point of the compass. His telescope is
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  Speaker 1: raised every moment to his eyes, and when he finds
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  Speaker 1: nothing to give any clue to our whereabouts, he assumes
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  Speaker 1: an napoleonic attitude and walks anxiously. Her remark that my
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  Speaker 1: uncle the Professor had a strong tendency to resume his old,
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  Speaker 1: impatient character, And I could not but make a note
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  Speaker 1: of this disagreeable circumstance in my journal. I saw clearly
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  Speaker 1: that it had required all the influence of my danger
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  Speaker 1: and suffering to extract from him one scintillation of human feeling.
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  Speaker 1: Now that I was quite recovered his original nature had
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  Speaker 1: conquered and obtained the upper hand. And after all, what
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  Speaker 1: had he to be angry and annoyed about now more
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  Speaker 1: than at any other time? Was not the journey being
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  Speaker 1: accomplished under the most favorable circumstances. Was not the raft
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  Speaker 1: progressing with a most marvelous rapidity? What then could be
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  Speaker 1: the matter? After one or two preliminary hymns, I determined
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  Speaker 1: to inquire you seem uneasy, uncle, said I, when for
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  Speaker 1: about the hundredth time he put down his telescope and
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  Speaker 1: walked up and down, muttering to himself. No, I'm not uneasy,
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  Speaker 1: he replied, in a dry, harsh tone. By no means,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps I should have said impatient, I replied, softening the
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  Speaker 1: force of my remark enough to make me so, I think.
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  Speaker 1: And yet we are advancing at the rate seldom attained
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  Speaker 1: by raft, I remarked, What mutges that, cried my uncle.
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  Speaker 1: I am not vexed at the rate we go at,
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  Speaker 1: but I am annoyed to find the sea so much
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  Speaker 1: vaster than I expected. I then recollected that the professor,
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  Speaker 1: before our departure, had estimated the length of this subterranean
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  Speaker 1: ocean as at most about thirty leagues. Now we had
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  Speaker 1: traveled at least over thrice that distance without discovering any
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  Speaker 1: trace of the distant shore. I began to understand my
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  Speaker 1: uncle's anger. We are not going down, suddenly exclaimed the professor.
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  Speaker 1: We are not progressing with our great discoveries. All this
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  Speaker 1: is utter loss of time. After all, I did not
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  Speaker 1: come from home to undertake a party of pleasure. This
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  Speaker 1: voyage on a raft over a pond a noise, and
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  Speaker 1: wares me. He called this adventurous journey a party of pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: and this great inlancy a pond. But argued I, if
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  Speaker 1: we have followed the route indicated by the great Sacknosum,
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  Speaker 1: we cannot be in going far wrong. That is the question,
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  Speaker 1: as the great immortal Shakespeare has it. Are we following
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  Speaker 1: the route indicated by that wondrous sage? Did Sacnossem ever
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  Speaker 1: fall in with this great sheet of water? If he did,
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  Speaker 1: did he cross it? I begin to fear that the
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  Speaker 1: rivulet we adopted for a guide has led us wrong.
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  Speaker 1: In any case, we can never regret having come thus far.
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  Speaker 1: It is why the whole journey to have enjoyed this
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  Speaker 1: magnificent spectacle. It is something to have seen. I care
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  Speaker 1: nothing about seeing nor about magnificent spectacles. I came down
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  Speaker 1: into the interior of the earth with an object, and
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  Speaker 1: that object I mean to attain. Don't talk to me
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  Speaker 1: about admiring scenery or any other sentimental thrush. After this,
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  Speaker 1: I thought it well to hold my tongue and allow
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  Speaker 1: the professor to bite his lips until the blood came,
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  Speaker 1: without further remark. At six o'clock in the evening, our
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact guide Hans asked for its weak's salary, and,
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  Speaker 1: receiving his three ricks dollars, put them carefully in his pocket.
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  Speaker 1: He was perfectly contented and satisfied. Sunday, August sixteenth, nothing
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  Speaker 1: new to record. The same weather as before. The wind
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  Speaker 1: has a slight tendency to freshen up with signs of
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  Speaker 1: an approaching gale. When I I awoke, my first observation
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  Speaker 1: was in regard to the intensity of the light. I
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  Speaker 1: keep on fearing day after day that the extraordinary electric
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  Speaker 1: phenomenon should become first obscured and then go fully out,
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  Speaker 1: leaving us in total darkness. Nothing, however, of the kind, occurs.
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  Speaker 1: The shadow of the raft, its mast and sails, is
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  Speaker 1: clearly distinguished on the surface of the water. This wondrous
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  Speaker 1: sea is, after all infinite. In its extent, it must
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  Speaker 1: be quite as wide as the Mediterranean, or perhaps even
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  Speaker 1: as the great Atlantic Ocean. Why, after all should it
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  Speaker 1: not be so. My uncle has, on more than one
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  Speaker 1: occasion tried deep sea soundings. He tied the cross of
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  Speaker 1: one of our heaviest crowbars to the extremity of a cord,
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  Speaker 1: which he allowed to run out to the extent of
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  Speaker 1: two hundred fathoms. We had the greatest difficulty in hoisting
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  Speaker 1: in our novel kind of lead. When the crovar was
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  Speaker 1: finally dragged on board, Hans called my attention to some
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  Speaker 1: singular marks upon its surface. The piece of iron looked
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  Speaker 1: as if it had been crushed between two very hard substances.
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  Speaker 1: I looked at our worthy guide with an inquiring glance.
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  Speaker 1: Tender said he, of course, I was at a loss
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  Speaker 1: to understand. I turned round towards my uncle, absorbed in
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  Speaker 1: gloomy reflections. I had little wish to disturb him from
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  Speaker 1: his reverie. I accordingly turned once more towards our worthy icelander.
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  Speaker 1: Hans very quietly and significantly opened his mouth once or twice,
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  Speaker 1: as if in the act of biting, and in this
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  Speaker 1: way made me understand his meaning. Teeth, cried I with dupefaction,
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  Speaker 1: as I examined the bar of iron with more attention. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no doubt about the matter. The indentations
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  Speaker 1: on the bar of iron are the marks of teeth.
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  Speaker 1: What yours must the owner of such molars be possessed of?
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  Speaker 1: Have we then come upon a monster of unknown species
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  Speaker 1: which still exists within the vast waste of waters, A
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  Speaker 1: monster more worracious than a shark, more terrible and bulky
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  Speaker 1: than the whale? I am unable to withdraw my eyes
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  Speaker 1: from the bar of iron, actually half crushed. Is then
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  Speaker 1: my dream about to come true? Adreed and terrible reality?
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  Speaker 1: All day my thoughts were bent upon these speculations, and
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  Speaker 1: my imagination scarcely regained a degree of calmness and power
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  Speaker 1: of reflection, until after a sleep of many hours. This day,
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  Speaker 1: as on other Sundays, we observed as a day of
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  Speaker 1: rest and pious meditation, Monday, August seventeen. I have been
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  Speaker 1: trying to realize from memory the particular instincts of those
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  Speaker 1: antediluvian animals of the secondary period which succeeding to the mullusca,
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  Speaker 1: to the crustacea and to the fish, preceded the appearance
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  Speaker 1: of the race of mammifares. The generation of reptiles then
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  Speaker 1: reigned supreme upon the earth. These hideous monsters ruled everything
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  Speaker 1: in the seas of the secondary period, which formed the
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  Speaker 1: strata of which the Jura Mountains are composed. Nature had
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  Speaker 1: endowed them with perfect organization. What a gigantic structure was theirs.
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  Speaker 1: What vast and prodigious strength they possessed. The existing saurians,
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  Speaker 1: which include all such reptiles as lizards, crocodiles, and alligators,
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  Speaker 1: even the largest and most formidable of their class, are
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  Speaker 1: but feeble imitations of their mighty sires, the animalimals of
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  Speaker 1: ages long ago. If there were giants in the days
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  Speaker 1: of old, there were also gigantic animals. I shudder as
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  Speaker 1: I evolved from my mind the idea and recollection of
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  Speaker 1: these awful monsters. No I of man had seen them
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  Speaker 1: in the flesh. They took their walks abroad upon the
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  Speaker 1: face of the earth thousands of ages before man came
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  Speaker 1: into existence, and their fossil bones discovered in the limestone
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  Speaker 1: have allowed us to reconstruct them anatomically, and thus to
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  Speaker 1: get some faint idea of their colossal formation. I recollect
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  Speaker 1: one seeing in the Great Museum of Hamburg the skeleton
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  Speaker 1: of one of these wonderful saurians. It measured no less
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  Speaker 1: than thirty feet from the nose to the tail. Am I, then,
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  Speaker 1: an inhabitant of the earth of the present day, destined
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  Speaker 1: to find myself face to face with the represented tive
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  Speaker 1: of this antediluvian family. I can scarcely believe it possible.
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  Speaker 1: I can hardly believe it true. And yet these marks
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  Speaker 1: of powerful teeth upon the bar of iron, can there
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  Speaker 1: be a doubt from their shape that the bite is
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  Speaker 1: the bite of a crocodile. My eyes stare wildly and
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  Speaker 1: with terror upon the subterranean sea. Every moment I expect
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  Speaker 1: one of these monsters to rise from its vast, cavernous depth.
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  Speaker 1: I fancy that the worthy professor, in some measure shares
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  Speaker 1: my notions, if not my fears. For after an attentive
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  Speaker 1: examination of the crowbar, he cast his eyes rapidly over
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  Speaker 1: the mighty and mysterious ocean. What could possess him to
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  Speaker 1: leave the land? I thought, as if the depth of
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  Speaker 1: this water was over any importance to us, No doubt
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  Speaker 1: he has disturbed some terrible monster in his watery home,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps we may pay dearly for our temerity. Anxious
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  Speaker 1: to be prepared for the worst, I examined our weapons
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  Speaker 1: and saw that they were in a fit state for use.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle looked on at me and nodded his head approvingly.
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  Speaker 1: He too, has noticed what we have to fear already.
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  Speaker 1: The uplifting of the waters on the surface indicates that
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  Speaker 1: something is in motion below. The danger approaches, it comes
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  Speaker 1: nearer and nearer. It bhooves us to be on the watch. Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: August eighteenth, evening came at last the hour when the
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  Speaker 1: desire for sleep caused our eyelids to be heavy. Night.
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  Speaker 1: There is not, properly speaking, in this place any more
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  Speaker 1: than there is in summer in the Arctic regions. Hans, however,
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  Speaker 1: is immovable at the rudder. When isnt she is a
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  Speaker 1: moment of rest, I really cannot say I take advantage
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  Speaker 1: of his vigilance to take some little repose. But two
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  Speaker 1: hours after I was awakened from a heavy sleep by
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  Speaker 1: an awful shock. The raft appeared to have struck upon
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  Speaker 1: a sunken rock. It was lifted right out of the
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  Speaker 1: water by some wondrous and mysterious power, and then started
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  Speaker 1: off twenty fathoms distant. Eh, what is it, cried my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: starting up. Are we shipwrecked or what? Hans raised his
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  Speaker 1: hand and pointed to where about two hundred yards of
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  Speaker 1: a large black mass was moving up and down. I
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  Speaker 1: looked with ave. My worst fears were realized. It is
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  Speaker 1: a colossal monster, I cried, clasping my hands. Yes, cried
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  Speaker 1: the agitated professor. And there yonder is a huge sea
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  Speaker 1: lizard of terrible size and shape. And farther on behold
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  Speaker 1: a prodigious crocodile. Look at his hideous jaws and that
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  Speaker 1: row of monstrous teeth. Ha, he has gone. A wail,
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  Speaker 1: A wail, shouted the professor. I can see her enormous fince.
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  Speaker 1: See see how she blows air and water. Two liquid
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  Speaker 1: columns rose to a vast height above the level of
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  Speaker 1: the sea, into which they fell with a terrific crash,
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  Speaker 1: waking up the echoes of that awful place. We stood still, surprised, stupefied, terror,
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  Speaker 1: stricken at the sight of this group of fearful marine monsters,
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  Speaker 1: more hideous in the reality than in my dream. They
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  Speaker 1: were of supernatural dimensions. The very smallest of the whole
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  Speaker 1: party could with ease, have crushed our raft and ourselves
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  Speaker 1: with a single bite. Hans, seizing the rudder which had
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  Speaker 1: flown out of his hand, puts it hard weather in
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  Speaker 1: order to escape from such dangerous vicinity. But no sooner
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  Speaker 1: does he do so than he finds his flying from
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  Speaker 1: Scilla to Charygdis to leeward is a turtle about forty
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  Speaker 1: feet wide, and a serpent quite as long, with an
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  Speaker 1: enormous and hideous head peering from out of the waters.
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  Speaker 1: Look which way we will? It is impossible for us
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  Speaker 1: to fly. The fearful reptiles advanced upon us. They turned
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  Speaker 1: and twisted about the raft with awful rapidity. They formed
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  Speaker 1: around our devoted vessel a series of concentric circles. I
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  Speaker 1: took up my rifle in desperation. But what effect can
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  Speaker 1: a rifle ball produce upon the armor scales with which
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  Speaker 1: these bodies of these horrid monsters are covered. We remain
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  Speaker 1: still and dumb from utter horror. They advance upon us
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  Speaker 1: nearer and nearer. Our fate appears certain, fearful and terrible.
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  Speaker 1: On one side, the mighty crocodile on the other, the
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  Speaker 1: great sea serpent. The rest of the fearful crowd of
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  Speaker 1: marine prodigies have plunged beneath the briny waves and disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: I am about to fire at any risk and try
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  Speaker 1: the effect of a shot. Hence the guide, however, interfered
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  Speaker 1: by a sign to check me. The two hidgeous and
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  Speaker 1: ravenuous monsters passed within fifty fathoms of the raft and
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  Speaker 1: then made a rush at one another, their fury enrage
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  Speaker 1: preventing them from seeing us. The combat commenced. We distinctly
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  Speaker 1: made out every action of the two hideous monsters. But
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  Speaker 1: to my excited imagination, the other animals appeared about to
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  Speaker 1: take part in the fierce and deadly struggle. The monster,
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  Speaker 1: the wail, the lizard, and the turtle. I distinctly saw
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  Speaker 1: them every moment. I pointed them out to the icelander,
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  Speaker 1: but he only shook his head two he said, what two?
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  Speaker 1: Only does he say? Surely he is mistaken, I cried,
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  Speaker 1: in a tone of wonder. He is quite right, replied
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  Speaker 1: my uncle, coolly and philosophically, examining the terrible duel with
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  Speaker 1: his telescope and speaking as if he were in a
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  Speaker 1: lecture room. How can that be? Yes, it is so.
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  Speaker 1: The first of these hideous monsters has the snout of
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  Speaker 1: a porpois, the head of a lizard, the teeth of
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  Speaker 1: a crocodile. And it is this that has deceived us.
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  Speaker 1: It is the most fearful of all antediluvian reptiles, the
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  Speaker 1: world renowned Ichiusaurus, or great fish lizard, and the other,
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  Speaker 1: the other is a monstrous serpent concealed under the hard
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  Speaker 1: vaulted shell of the turtle, the terrible enemy of its
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  Speaker 1: fearful rival, the Plesiosaurus or sea crocodile. Hans was quite right.
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  Speaker 1: The two monsters only disturbed the surface of the sea.
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  Speaker 1: At last, her mortal eyes gazed upon two reptiles of
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  Speaker 1: the great primitive ocean. I see the flaming red eyes
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  Speaker 1: of the Ichthiosaurus, each as big or bigger than a
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  Speaker 1: man's head. Nature, in its infinite wisdom, had gifted this
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  Speaker 1: wondrous marine animal with an optical apparatus of extreme power,
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  Speaker 1: capable of resisting the pressure of the heavy layers of
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  Speaker 1: water which rolled over him in the depths of the
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  Speaker 1: ocean where he usually fed. It has by some authors
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  Speaker 1: truly been called the wail of the saurian race, for
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  Speaker 1: it is as big and quick in its motions as
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  Speaker 1: our king of the seas. This one measures not less
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  Speaker 1: than a hundred feet in length, and I can form
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  Speaker 1: some idea of his girth when I see him lift
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  Speaker 1: his prodigious tail out of the waters. His jaw is
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  Speaker 1: of awful size and strength, and according to the best
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  Speaker 1: informed naturalists, it does not contain less than one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eighty two teeth. The other was the mighty plesiosaurus,
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  Speaker 1: a serpent with a cylindrical trunk, with a short, stumpy tail,
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  Speaker 1: with fins like a bank of oars in a Roman galley,
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  Speaker 1: its whole body covered by a carapace or shell, and
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  Speaker 1: its neck as flexible as that of a swan. Rose
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  Speaker 1: more than thirty feet above the waves. A tower of
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  Speaker 1: animated flesh. These animals attacked one another with inconceivable fury.
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  Speaker 1: Such a combat was never seen before by mortal eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and to us who did see it, it appeared more
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  Speaker 1: like the phantasmogoric creation of a dream than anything else.
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  Speaker 1: The raised mountains of water, which dashed in spray over
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  Speaker 1: the raft, already tossed to and fro by the waves
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  Speaker 1: twenty times we seemed on the point of being upset,
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  Speaker 1: and hurled headlong into the waves. Hideous hisses appeared to
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  Speaker 1: shake the gloomy granite roof of that mighty cavern, hisses
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  Speaker 1: which carried terror to our hearts. The awful combatants held
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  Speaker 1: each other in a tight embrace. I could not make
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  Speaker 1: out one from the other. Still, the combat could not
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  Speaker 1: last forever, and woe unto us, whichsoever became the victor.
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  Speaker 1: One hour, two hours, three hours passed away without any
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  Speaker 1: decisive result. The struggle continued with the same deadly tenacity,
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  Speaker 1: but without apparent result. The deadly opponents now approached, now
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  Speaker 1: drew away from the raft once or twice. We fancied
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  Speaker 1: they were about to leave us altogether. But instead of that,
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  Speaker 1: they came nearer and nearer. We crouched on the raft,
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  Speaker 1: ready to fire at them at a moment's notice. Poor
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  Speaker 1: as the prospect of hurting or terrifying them was still,
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  Speaker 1: we were determined not to perish without a struggle. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: the Ichiusaurus and the Plesiosaurus disappeared beneath the waves, leaving
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  Speaker 1: behind them a maelstrom in the midst of the sea.
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  Speaker 1: We were nearly drawn down by the in draft of
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  Speaker 1: the water. Several minutes elapsed before anything was again seen.
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  Speaker 1: Was this wonderful combat to end in the depth of
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  Speaker 1: the ocean. Was the last act of this terrible drama
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  Speaker 1: to take place? Without spectators, it was impossible for us
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  Speaker 1: to say, Suddenly, at no great distance from us, an
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  Speaker 1: enormous mass rises out of the waters. The head of
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  Speaker 1: the great Preciosaurus, the terrible monster, is now wounded unto death.
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  Speaker 1: I can see nothing now of his enormous body. All
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  Speaker 1: that could be distinguished was his serpent like neck, which
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  Speaker 1: he twisted and curled in all the agonies of death.
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  Speaker 1: Now he struck the waters with it as if it
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  Speaker 1: had been a gigantic whip, and then again wriggled like
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  Speaker 1: a worn cut in two. The water was spurted up
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  Speaker 1: to a great distance in all directions. A great portion
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  Speaker 1: of it swept over our wraft and nearly blinded us.
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  Speaker 1: But soon the end of the beast approached nearer and nearer,
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  Speaker 1: his movements slackened visibly, his contortions almost ceased, and at
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  Speaker 1: last the body of the mighty snake lay an inert,
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  Speaker 1: dead mass on the surface of the now calm and
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  Speaker 1: placid water. As for the Ecosaurus. Had he gone down
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  Speaker 1: to his mighty cabin under the sea to rest or,
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  Speaker 1: Will he reappear to destroy us. This question remained unanswered,
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  Speaker 1: and we had breathing time. End of Chapter thirty