“Axel! Axel! is it you?”
… .
“Yes, yes,” I replied.
… .
“My boy, where are you?”
… .
“Lost, in the deepest darkness.”
… .
“Where is your lamp?”
… .
“It is out.”
… .
“And the stream?”
… .
“Disappeared.”
… .
“Axel, Axel, take courage!”
… .
“Wait! I am exhausted! I can’t answer. Speak to me!”
… .
“Courage,” resumed my uncle. “Don’t speak. Listen to me. We have looked for you up the gallery and down the gallery. Could not find you. I wept for you, my poor boy. At last, supposing you were still on the Hansbach, we fired our guns. Our voices are audible to each other, but our hands cannot touch. But don’t despair, Axel! It is a great thing that we can hear each other.”
… .
During this time I had been reflecting. A vague hope was returning to my heart. There was one thing I must know to begin with. I placed my lips close to the wall, saying:
“My uncle!”
… .
“My boy!” came to me after a few seconds.
… .
“We must know how far we are apart.”
… .
“That is easy.”
… .
“You have your chronometer?”
…
“Yes.”
… .
“Well, take it. Pronounce my name, noting exactly the second when you speak. I will repeat it as soon as it shall come to me, and you will observe the exact moment when you get my answer.”
“Yes; and half the time between my call and your answer will exactly indicate that which my voice will take in coming to you.”
… .
“Just so, my uncle.”
… .
“Are you ready?”
… .
“Yes.”
… …
“Now, attention. I am going to call your name.”
… .
I put my ear to the wall, and as soon as the name ‘Axel’ came I immediately replied “Axel,” then waited.
… .
“Forty seconds,” said my uncle. “Forty seconds between the two words; so the sound takes twenty seconds in coming. Now, at the rate of 1,120 feet in a second, this is 22,400 feet, or four miles and a quarter, nearly.”
… .
“Four miles and a quarter!” I murmured.
… .
“It will soon be over, Axel.”
… .
“Must I go up or down?”
… .
“Down - for this reason: We are in a vast chamber, with endless galleries. Yours must lead into it, for it seems as if all the clefts and fractures of the globe radiated round this vast cavern. So get up, and begin walking. Walk on, drag yourself along, if necessary slide down the steep places, and at the end you will find us ready to receive you. Now begin moving.”
… .
These words cheered me up.
“Good bye, uncle.” I cried. “I am going. There will be no more voices heard when once I have started. So good bye!”
… .
“Good bye, Axel, au revoir!”
… .
These were the last words I heard.
This wonderful underground conversation, carried on with a distance of four miles and a quarter between us, concluded with these words of hope. I thanked God from my heart, for it was He who had conducted me through those vast solitudes to the point where, alone of all others perhaps, the voices of my companions could have reached me.
This acoustic effect is easily explained on scientific grounds. It arose from the concave form of the gallery and the conducting power of the rock. There are many examples of this propagation of sounds which remain unheard in the intermediate space. I remember that a similar phenomenon has been observed in many places; amongst others on the internal surface of the gallery of the dome of St. Paul’s in London, and especially in the midst of the curious caverns among the quarries near Syracuse, the most wonderful of which is called Dionysius’ Ear.
These remembrances came into my mind, and I clearly saw that since my uncle’s voice really reached me, there could be no obstacle between us. Following the direction by which the sound came, of course I should arrive in his presence, if my strength did not fail me.
I therefore rose; I rather dragged myself than walked. The slope was rapid, and I slid down.
Soon the swiftness of the descent increased horribly, and threatened to become a fall. I no longer had the strength to stop myself.
Suddenly there was no ground under me. I felt myself revolving in air, striking and rebounding against the craggy projections of a vertical gallery, quite a well; my head struck against a sharp corner of the rock, and I became unconscious.
Chapter XXIX.
Thalatta! Thalatta!
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,