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

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