LITMIR.BIZ

      THALATTA! THALATTA!

      Table of Contents

      When I came to myself, I was stretched in half darkness, covered with thick coats and blankets. My uncle was watching over me, to discover the least sign of life. At my first sigh he took my hand; when I opened my eyes he uttered a cry of joy.

      “He lives! he lives!” he cried.

      “Yes, I am still alive,” I answered feebly.

      “My dear nephew,” said my uncle, pressing me to his breast, “you are saved.”

      I was deeply touched with the tenderness of his manner as he uttered these words, and still more with the care with which he watched over me. But such trials were wanted to bring out the Professor’s tenderer qualities.

      At this moment Hans came, he saw my hand in my uncle’s, and I may safely say that there was joy in his countenance.

      “God dag,” said he.

      “How do you do, Hans? How are you? And now, uncle, tell me where we are at the present moment?”

      “Tomorrow, Axel, tomorrow. Now you are too faint and weak. I have bandaged your head with compresses which must not be disturbed. Sleep now, and tomorrow I will tell you all.”

      “But do tell me what time it is, and what day.”

      “It is Sunday, the 8th of August, and it is ten at night. You must ask me no more questions until the 10th.”

      In truth I was very weak, and my eyes involuntarily closed. I wanted a good night’s rest; and I therefore went off to sleep, with the knowledge that I had been four long days alone in the heart of the earth.

      Next morning, on awakening, I looked round me. My couch, made up of all our travelling gear, was in a charming grotto, adorned with splendid stalactites, and the soil of which was a fine sand. It was half light. There was no torch, no lamp, yet certain mysterious glimpses of light came from without through a narrow opening in the grotto. I heard too a vague and indistinct noise, something like the murmuring of waves breaking upon a shingly shore, and at times I seemed to hear the whistling of wind.

      I wondered whether I was awake, whether I dreaming, whether my brain, crazed by my fall, was not affected by imaginary noises. Yet neither eyes, nor ears could be so utterly deceived.

      It is a ray of daylight, I thought, sliding in through this cleft in the rock! That is indeed the murmuring of waves! That is the rustling noise of wind. Am I quite mistaken, or have we returned to the surface of the earth? Has my uncle given up the expedition, or is it happily terminated?

      I was asking myself these unanswerable questions when the Professor entered.

      “Good morning, Axel,” he cried cheerily. “I feel sure you are better.”

      “Yes, I am indeed,” said I, sitting up on my couch.

      “You can hardly fail to be better, for you have slept quietly. Hans and I watched you by turns, and we have noticed you were evidently recovering.”

      “Indeed, I do feel a great deal better, and I will give you a proof of that presently if you will let me have my breakfast.”

      “You shall eat, lad. The fever has left you. Hans rubbed your wounds with some ointment or other of which the Icelanders keep the secret, and they have healed marvellously. Our hunter is a splendid fellow!”

      Whilst he went on talking, my uncle prepared a few provisions, which I devoured eagerly, notwithstanding his advice to the contrary. All the while I was overwhelming him with questions which he answered readily.

      I then learnt that my providential fall had brought me exactly to the extremity of an almost perpendicular shaft; and as I had landed in the midst of an accompanying torrent of stones, the least of which would have been enough to crush me, the conclusion was that a loose portion of the rock had come down with me. This frightful conveyance had thus carried me into the arms of my uncle, where I fell bruised, bleeding, and insensible.

      “Truly

Скачать книгу