by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XLI.
THE GREAT EXPLOSION AND THE RUSH DOWN BELOW
The next day, Thursday, August 27, is a well-remembered date in oursubterranean journey. It never returns to my memory without sendingthrough me a shudder of horror and a palpitation of the heart. Fromthat hour we had no further occasion for the exercise of reason, orjudgment, or skill, or contrivance. We were henceforth to be hurledalong, the playthings of the fierce elements of the deep.
At six we were afoot. The moment drew near to clear a way by blastingthrough the opposing mass of granite.
I begged for the honour of lighting the fuse. This duty done, I wasto join my companions on the raft, which had not yet been unloaded;we should then push off as far as we could and avoid the dangersarising from the explosion, the effects of which were not likely tobe confined to the rock itself.
The fuse was calculated to burn ten minutes before setting fire tothe mine. I therefore had sufficient time to get away to the raft.
I prepared to fulfil my task with some anxiety.
After a hasty meal, my uncle and the hunter embarked whilst Iremained on shore. I was supplied with a lighted lantern to set fireto the fuse. "Now go," said my uncle, "and return immediately to us.""Don't be uneasy," I replied. "I will not play by the way." Iimmediately proceeded to the mouth of the tunnel. I opened mylantern. I laid hold of the end of the match. The Professor stood,chronometer in hand. "Ready?" he cried.
"Ay."
"Fire!"
I instantly plunged the end of the fuse into the lantern. Itspluttered and flamed, and I ran at the top of my speed to the raft.
"Come on board quickly, and let us push off."
Hans, with a vigorous thrust, sent us from the shore. The raft shottwenty fathoms out to sea.
It was a moment of intense excitement. The Professor was watching thehand of the chronometer.
"Five minutes more!" he said. "Four! Three!"
My pulse beat half-seconds.
"Two! One! Down, granite rocks; down with you."
What took place at that moment? I believe I did not hear the dullroar of the explosion. But the rocks suddenly assumed a newarrangement: they rent asunder like a curtain. I saw a bottomless pitopen on the shore. The sea, lashed into sudden fury, rose up in anenormous billow, on the ridge of which the unhappy raft was upliftedbodily in the air with all its crew and cargo.
We all three fell down flat. In less than a second we were in deep,unfathomable darkness. Then I felt as if not only myself but the raftalso had no support beneath. I thought it was sinking; but it was notso. I wanted to speak to my uncle, but the roaring of the wavesprevented him from hearing even the sound of my voice.
In spite of darkness, noise, astonishment, and terror, I thenunderstood what had taken place.
On the other side of the blown-up rock was an abyss. The explosionhad caused a kind of earthquake in this fissured and abysmal region;a great gulf had opened; and the sea, now changed into a torrent, washurrying us along into it.
I gave myself up for lost.
An hour passed away--two hours, perhaps--I cannot tell. We clutchedeach other fast, to save ourselves from being thrown off the raft. Wefelt violent shocks whenever we were borne heavily against the craggyprojections. Yet these shocks were not very frequent, from which Iconcluded that the gully was widening. It was no doubt the same roadthat Saknussemm had taken; but instead of walking peaceably down it,as he had done, we were carrying a whole sea along with us.
These ideas, it will be understood, presented themselves to my mindin a vague and undetermined form. I had difficulty in associating anyideas together during this headlong race, which seemed like avertical descent. To judge by the air which was whistling past me andmade a whizzing in my ears, we were moving faster than the fastestexpress trains. To light a torch under these' conditions would havebeen impossible; and our last electric apparatus had been shatteredby the force of the explosion.
I was therefore much surprised to see a clear light shining near me.It lighted up the calm and unmoved countenance of Hans. The skilfulhuntsman had succeeded in lighting the lantern; and although itflickered so much as to threaten to go out, it threw a fitful lightacross the awful darkness.
I was right in my supposition. It was a wide gallery. The dim lightcould not show us both its walls at once. The fall of the waterswhich were carrying us away exceeded that of the swiftest rapids inAmerican rivers. Its surface seemed composed of a sheaf of arrowshurled with inconceivable force; I cannot convey my impressions by abetter comparison. The raft, occasionally seized by an eddy, spunround as it still flew along. When it approached the walls of thegallery I threw on them the light of the lantern, and I could judgesomewhat of the velocity of our speed by noticing how the jaggedprojections of the rocks spun into endless ribbons and bands, so thatwe seemed confined within a network of shifting lines. I supposed wewere running at the rate of thirty leagues an hour.
My uncle and I gazed on each other with haggard eyes, clinging to thestump of the mast, which had snapped asunder at the first shock ofour great catastrophe. We kept our backs to the wind, not to bestifled by the rapidity of a movement which no human power couldcheck.
Hours passed away. No change in our situation; but a discovery cameto complicate matters and make them worse.
In seeking to put our cargo into somewhat better order, I found thatthe greater part of the articles embarked had disappeared at themoment of the explosion, when the sea broke in upon us with suchviolence. I wanted to know exactly what we had saved, and with thelantern in my hand I began my examination. Of our instruments nonewere saved but the compass and the chronometer; our stock of ropesand ladders was reduced to the bit of cord rolled round the stump ofthe mast! Not a spade, not a pickaxe, not a hammer was left us; and,irreparable disaster! we had only one day's provisions left.
I searched every nook and corner, every crack and cranny in the raft.There was nothing. Our provisions were reduced to one bit of saltmeat and a few biscuits.
I stared at our failing supplies stupidly. I refused to take in thegravity of our loss. And yet what was the use of troubling myself. Ifwe had had provisions enough for months, how could we get out of theabyss into which we were being hurled by an irresistible torrent? Whyshould we fear the horrors of famine, when death was swooping downupon us in a multitude of other forms? Would there be time left todie of starvation?
Yet by an inexplicable play of the imagination I forgot my presentdangers, to contemplate the threatening future. Was there any chanceof escaping from the fury of this impetuous torrent, and of returningto the surface of the globe? I could not form the slightestconjecture how or when. But one chance in a thousand, or tenthousand, is still a chance; whilst death from starvation would leaveus not the smallest hope in the world.
The thought came into my mind to declare the whole truth to my uncle,to show him the dreadful straits to which we were reduced, and tocalculate how long we might yet expect to live. But I had the courageto preserve silence. I wished to leave him cool and self-possessed.
At that moment the light from our lantern began to sink by little andlittle, and then went out entirely. The wick had burnt itself out.Black night reigned again; and there was no hope left of being ableto dissipate the palpable darkness. We had yet a torch left, but wecould not have kept it alight. Then, like a child, I closed my eyesfirmly, not to see the darkness.
After a considerable lapse of time our speed redoubled. I couldperceive it by the sharpness of the currents that blew past my face.The descent became steeper. I believe we were no longer sliding, butfalling down. I had an impression that we were dropping vertically.My uncle's hand, and the vigorous arm of Hans, held me fast.
Suddenly, after a space of time that I could not measure, I felt ashock. The raft had not struck against any hard resistance, but hadsuddenly been checked in its fall. A waterspout, an immense liquidcolumn, was beating upon the surface of the waters. I wassuffocating! I was drowning!
But this sudden f
lood was not of long duration. In a few seconds Ifound myself in the air again, which I inhaled with all the force ofmy lungs. My uncle and Hans were still holding me fast by the arms;and the raft was still carrying us.