Chapter 22 - Page 2

no,there was dead silence.

And now my limbs were failing beneath me. I resisted pain andtorture, that I might not stop my uncle, which would have driven himto despair, for the day was drawing near to its end, and it was hislast.

At last I failed utterly; I uttered a cry and fell.

"Come to me, I am dying."

My uncle retraced his steps. He gazed upon me with his arms crossed;then these muttered words passed his lips:

"It's all over!"

The last thing I saw was a fearful gesture of rage, and my eyesclosed.

When I reopened them I saw my two companions motionless and rolled upin their coverings. Were they asleep? As for me, I could not get onemoment's sleep. I was suffering too keenly, and what embittered mythoughts was that there was no remedy. My uncle's last words echoedpainfully in my ears: "it's all over!" For in such a fearful state ofdebility it was madness to think of ever reaching the upper worldagain.

We had above us a league and a half of terrestrial crust. The weightof it seemed to be crushing down upon my shoulders. I felt weigheddown, and I exhausted myself with imaginary violent exertions to turnround upon my granite couch.

A few hours passed away. A deep silence reigned around us, thesilence of the grave. No sound could reach us through walls, thethinnest of which were five miles thick.

Yet in the midst of my stupefaction I seemed to be aware of a noise.It was dark down the tunnel, but I seemed to see the Icelandervanishing from our sight with the lamp in his hand.

Why was he leaving us? Was Hans going to forsake us? My uncle wasfast asleep. I wanted to shout, but my voice died upon my parched andswollen lips. The darkness became deeper, and the last sound diedaway in the far distance.

"Hans has abandoned us," I cried. "Hans! Hans!"

But these words were only spoken within me. They went no farther. Yetafter the first moment of terror I felt ashamed of suspecting a manof such extraordinary faithfulness. Instead of ascending he wasdescending the gallery. An evil design would have taken him up notdown. This reflection restored me to calmness, and I turned to otherthoughts. None but some weighty motive could have induced so quiet aman to forfeit his sleep. Was he on a journey of discovery? Had heduring the silence of the night caught a sound, a murmuring ofsomething in the distance, which had failed to affect my hearing?