Archiwum
- Index
- Dianne Robins The Hollow Earth And Underground Cities
- Frankowski & Grossman Tank 2 The War With Earth
- Don Wilcox Earth Stealers
- GR0972.Bennett_Jules_Podroz_przedslubna
- Bennett Jules Słodka zemsta
- Janrae Frank Journey of Sacred King 01 My Sister's Keeper
- Benford, Gregory Galactic Center 3 Great Sky River
- Verne_Juliusz_ _Tajemnica_zamku_Karpaty
- Anna Rice Nowe Kroniki Wampirów II Wampir Vittorio
- Aleksander Dumas D Artagnan
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- epicusfuror.xlx.pl
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allowed myself to slip down.
Soon the rapidity of the descent began to assume frightful proportions; and
menaced a fearful fall. I clutched at the sides; I grasped at projections of
rocks; I threw myself backwards. All in vain. My weakness was so great I could
do nothing to save myself.
Suddenly earth failed me.
I was first launched into a dark and gloomy void. I then struck against the
projecting asperities of a vertical gallery, a perfect well. My head bounded
against a pointed rock, and I lost all knowledge of existence. As far as I was
concerned, death had claimed me for his own.
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Chapter 26
A Rapid Recovery
WHEN
I returned to the consciousness of existence, I found myself surrounded by a
kind of semiobscurity, lying on some thick and soft coverlets. My uncle was
watching- his eyes fixed
intently on my countenance, a grave expression on his face, a tear in his eye.
At the first sigh which struggled from my bosom, he took hold of my hand. When
he saw my eyes open and fix themselves upon his, he uttered a loud cry of loud
cry of joy. "He lives! he lives!"
"Yes, my good uncle," I whispered.
"My dear boy," continued the grim Professor, clasping me to his heart, "you
are saved!"
I was deeply and unaffectedly touched by the tone in which these words were
uttered, and even more by the kindly care which accompanied them. The
Professor, however, was one of those men who must be severely tried in order
to induce any display of affection or gentle emotion. At this moment our
friend Hans, the guide, joined us. He saw my hand in that of my uncle, and I
venture to say that, taciturn as he was, his eyes beamed with lively
satisfaction.
"God dag," he said.
"Good day, Hans, good day," I replied, in as hearty a tone as I could assume,
"and now, Uncle, that we are together, tell me where we are. I have lost all
idea of our position, as of everything else."
"Tomorrow, Harry, tomorrow," he replied. "Today you are far too weak. Your
head is surrounded with bandages and poultices that must not be touched.
Sleep, my boy, sleep, and tomorrow you will know all that you require."
"But," I cried, let me know what o'clock it is- what day it is?"
"It is now eleven o'clock at night, and this is once more Sunday. It is now
the ninth of the month of August. And I distinctly prohibit you from asking
any more questions until the tenth of the same."
I was, if the truth were told, very weak indeed, and my eyes soon closed
involuntarily. I did require a good night's rest, and I went off reflecting at
the last moment that my perilous adventure in the interior of the earth, in
total darkness, had lasted four days!
On the morning of the next day, at my awakening, I began to look around me. My
sleeping place, made of all our traveling bedding, was in a charming grotto,
adorned with magnificent stalagmites, glittering in all the colors of the
rainbow, the floor of soft and silvery sand.
A dim obscurity prevailed. No torch, no lamp was lighted, and yet certain
unexplained beams of light penetrated from without, and made their way through
the opening of the beautiful grotto.
I, moreover, heard a vague and indefinite murmur, like the ebb and flow of
waves upon a strand, and sometimes I verily believed I could hear the sighing
of the wind.
I began to believe that, instead of being awake, I must be dreaming. Surely my
brain had not been affected by my fall, and all that occurred during the last
twenty-four hours was not the frenzied visions of madness? And yet after some
reflection, a trial of my faculties, I came to the conclusion that I could not
be mistaken. Eyes and ears could not surely both deceive me.
"It is a ray of the blessed daylight," I said to myself, "which has penetrated
through some mighty fissure in the rocks. But what is the meaning of this
murmur of waves, this
unmistakable moaning of the salt-sea billows? I can hear, too, plainly enough,
the whistling of the wind. But can I be altogether mistaken? If my uncle,
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during my illness, has but carried me back to the surface of the earth! Has
he, on my account, given up his wondrous expedition, or in some strange manner
has it come to an end?"
I was puzzling my brain over these and other questions, when the Professor
joined me.
"Good day, Harry," he cried in a joyous tone. "I fancy you are quite well."
"I am very much better," I replied, actually sitting up in my bed.
"I knew that would be the end of it, as you slept both soundly and tranquilly.
Hans and I have each taken turn to watch, and every hour we have seen visible
signs of amelioration."
"You must be right, Uncle," was my reply, "for I feel as if I could do justice
to any meal you could put before me."
"You shall eat, my boy, you shall eat. The fever has left you. Our excellent
friend Hans has rubbed your wounds and bruises with I know not what ointment,
of which the Icelanders alone possess the secret. And they have healed your
bruises in the most marvelous manner. Ah, he's a wise fellow is Master Hans."
While he was speaking, my uncle was placing before me several articles of
food, which, despite his earnest injunctions, I readily devoured. As soon as
the first rage of hunger was appeased, I overwhelmed him with questions, to
which he now no longer hesitated to give answers.
I then learned, for the first time, that my providential fall had brought me
to the bottom of an almost perpendicular gallery. As I came down, amidst a
perfect shower of stones, the least of which falling on me would have crushed
me to death, they came to the conclusion that I had carried with me an entire
dislocated rock. Riding as it were on this terrible chariot, I was cast
headlong into my uncle's arms. And into them I fell, insensible and covered
with blood.
"It is indeed a miracle," was the Professor's final remark, "that you were not
killed a thousand times over. But let us take care never to separate; for
surely we should risk never meeting again."
"Let us take care never again to separate."
These words fell with a sort of chill upon my heart. The journey, then, was
not over. I looked at my uncle with surprise and astonishment. My uncle, after
an instant's examination of my countenance, said: "What is the matter, Harry?"
"I want to ask you a very serious question. You say that I am all right in
health?"
"Certainly you are."
"And all my limbs are sound and capable of new exertion?" I asked.
"Most undoubtedly."
"But what about my head?" was my next anxious question.
"Well, your head, except that you have one or two contusions, is exactly where
it ought to be-
on your shoulders," said my uncle, laughing.
"Well, my own opinion is that my head is not exactly right. In fact, I believe
myself slightly delirious."
"What makes you think so?"
"I will explain why I fancy I have lost my senses," I cried. "Have we not
returned to the surface of Mother Earth?"
"Certainly not."
"Then truly I must be mad, for do I not see the light of day? do I not hear
the whistling of the wind? and can I not distinguish the wash of a great sea?"
"And that is all that makes you uneasy?" said my uncle, with a smile.
"Can you explain?"
"I will not make any attempt to explain; for the whole matter is utterly
inexplicable. But you shall see and judge for yourself. You will then find
that geological science is as yet in its infancy- and that we are doomed to
enlighten the world."
"Let us advance, then," I cried eagerly, no longer able to restrain my
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curiosity.
"Wait a moment, my dear Harry," he responded; "you must take precautions after
your illness before going into the open air."
"The open air?"
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