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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Chapter 14. THE REAL JOURNEY COMMENCES
Our real journey had now commenced, Until now our courage and will had overcome all difficulties.
We had been tired at times and that was all.
Now we were going to meet unknown and frightening dangers.
I hadn't yet dared to take a look down the horrible abyss into which in a few minutes more I was going to fall.
The decisive moment had, however, at last come.
I still had the choice of refusing or taking part in this foolish and bold enterprise.
But I was ashamed to show more fear than the eider-duck hunter.
Hans seemed to accept the journey's dangers so calmly and carelessly that I blushed to seem less of a man than he!
If I had been alone with my uncle, I'd certainly have sat down and argued the point fully.
But in the guide's presence I kept my mouth shut.
I gave one moment to the thought of my charming cousin, and then I went to the mouth of the central shaft.
It was about a hundred feet across, which made about three hundred in circumference.
I leaned over a rock that stood on its edge and looked down.
My hair stood on end, my teeth chattered, my limbs shook.
I seemed to lose my center of gravity, while my head went into a kind of spin, like that of a drunk man.
There's nothing stronger than this pull toward an abyss.
I was about to fall headfirst into the gaping well when I was pulled back by a firm and powerful hand.
It was Hans's hand, strong and steady, gripping my arm tightly.
I hadn't had enough practice at the Frelser's-Kirk of Copenhagen in learning to look down from high places without blinking!
However brief the minutes I stared down that tremendous and even wonderful shaft, I had a clear view of its shape.
Its sides, which were almost as straight as those of a well, showed many projections which would no doubt help our descent.
It was a kind of wild and savage staircase without a railing or fence.
A rope fixed near the surface would certainly hold our weight and let us reach the bottom.
But when we had reached the lowest part, how were we to free it above?
This, I thought, was an important question.
My uncle, however, was one of those men who are nearly always ready with solutions.
He found a very simple way to deal with this problem.
He unrolled a cord about as thick as my thumb and at least four hundred feet long.
He let half of it down the pit and hitched it over a great block of lava on the precipice's edge.
Then he threw the second half after the first.
Each of us could now go down by holding the two cords in one hand.
At about two hundred feet, the climber let go of one end and pulled the other so the cord fell at his feet.
To go down farther, he had just to do the same thing again.
This was a very good idea and no doubt a correct one.
Going down seemed easy enough, it was the coming up again that now filled my thoughts.
"Now," said my uncle as soon as he had finished this important preparation.
"Let's see about the baggage."
"It must be divided into three separate parcels and each of us must carry one on his back."
"I mean the more important and fragile things."
My worthy and clever uncle didn't seem to think that we belonged to the fragile group.
"Hans," he continued, "you'll take care of the tools and some of the provisions."
"Harry, you must take another third of the provisions and the arms. I'll load myself with the rest of the food and with the more delicate instruments".
"But," I cried, "our clothes, this mass of cord and ladders who will carry them down?"
"They'll go down by themselves."
"And how is that?" I asked.
"You'll see."
My uncle didn't like half measures and he disliked any kind of hesitation.
Giving his orders to Hans he had all the nonfragile articles tied up into one bundle.
The packet, tightly and solidly fastened, was simply thrown over the edge of the gulf.
I heard the moaning of the suddenly moved air and the sound of falling stones.
My uncle, leaning over the abyss, watched his luggage descend with a satisfied air and did not rise until it disappeared.
"Now then," he cried, "it's our turn."
I put it to any man of common sense who was listening.
Was it possible to hear this strong cry without a shudder?
The Professor fastened his case of instruments on his back.
Hans took the tools, I took the arms.
The descent then began in this order.
Hans went first, my uncle followed, and I went last, we moved in deep silence.
The silence was only broken by pieces of rock falling from the jagged sides with a roar into the depths below.
I slid down, holding the double cord in one hand and keeping myself off the rocks with my iron-shod pole.
One idea kept pressing on my mind.
I feared the upper support would fail me.
The cord looked far too weak to bear the weight of the three of us with our luggage.
I used it as little as possible, trusting my own agility.
I did wonders of skill and strength on the projecting shelves and spurs of lava that my feet seemed to grip as strongly as my hands.
The guide went first, and when a slippery, weak support broke beneath him he used his usual short way of speaking.
"Gif akt" he said.
"Attention look out," repeated my uncle.
In about half an hour we reached a small terrace made by a fragment of rock projecting from the shaft's sides.
Hans now began to pull on the cord on one side only, the other going up as quietly as the first came down.
It fell at last bringing with it a shower of small stones lava and dust a disagreeable kind of rain or hail.
While we sat on this extraordinary bench I dared once more to look downwards.
With a sigh I saw that the bottom was still completely invisible.
Were we then going straight to the interior of the earth?
The cord work began again and a quarter of an hour later we had reached another two hundred feet down.
I have strong doubts if the most determined geologist would during that descent have studied the nature of the different layers of earth around him.
I didn't trouble my head about the matter.
Whether we were among the combustible carbon Silurians or primitive soil I neither knew nor cared to know.
Not so the stubborn Professor, who continued to take notes and insist on theories.
He must have taken notes all the way down for at one of our stops he began a short lecture.
"The farther we go,"
He said, "The farther we go, the more sure I am of the result."
"The arrangement of these volcanic layers confirms the theories of Sir Humphry Davy."
"We're still within the region of the primitive soil, where metals inflame on contact with air and water."
"I now regret the old rejected theory of a central fire, but at all events we'll soon know the truth".
Such was the constant conclusion he came to.
I however was far from being in the mood to discuss the matter.
I had other things to think about.
My silence was taken for consent and still we kept going down.
After three hours we were to all appearance as far off as ever from the bottom of the well.
When I looked up however I could see that the upper opening was getting smaller every minute.
The sides of the shaft were drawing closer and we were entering the regions of eternal night.
And still we continued to descend, the darkness closing in around us.
At length I noticed that when pieces of stone broke from the sides of this huge precipice they were swallowed up with less noise than before.
The final sound came sooner, we were getting near the bottom of the abyss.
I had kept careful track of all the cord changes, so I could tell exactly how deep we had gone.
I could also tell how long it had taken.
We had shifted the rope twenty eight times each operation taking a quarter of an hour which in all made seven hours.
To this we had to add twenty eight pauses making in all ten hours and a half.
We started at one so it was now about eleven o'clock at night.
Twenty-eight times two hundred feet equals 5,600 feet, more than an English mile.
While I was doing this mental calculation a voice broke the silence, it was Hans's voice.
"Halt!" he cried.
I stopped very suddenly just at the moment when I was about to kick my uncle on the head.
"We have reached the end of our journey," said the worthy Professor in a satisfied tone.
"What the interior of the earth?" said I slipping down to his side.
"No you stupid fellow but we have reached the bottom of the well."
"And I suppose there's no farther progress to be made?" I asked with hope.
"Oh yes I can just see a kind of tunnel which turns off slanting to the right."
"At all events we must look at that tomorrow."
"Let us eat now and try to sleep as best we can."
I thought the time had come but made no comment on that point.
I was fairly launched on a desperate course and all I had to do was to move forward with hope and trust.
It wasn't even yet completely dark the light coming down in a most strange way.
We opened the provision bag and ate a small supper.
Each of us tried to find a bed among the stones, dirt, and lava that had long gathered at the shaft bottom.
I happened to feel out the pile of ropes ladders and clothes that we had thrown down and on them I stretched myself.
After such a day's work my rough bed seemed as soft as down!
For a while I lay in a kind of pleasant half sleep.
Presently after lying quietly for some minutes I opened my eyes and looked up.
As I did so I made out a bright little dot at the end of this long gigantic telescope.
It was a star without twinkling rays.
According to my calculation it must be Beta in the constellation of the Little Bear.
After this small piece of astronomy I fell into a deep sleep.