Chapter 27 - Page 2

turn in the road. With the stream at my feet, I might hope toregain the summit of Snæfell.

Why had I not thought of that sooner? Here was evidently a chance ofsafety. The most pressing duty was to find out again the course ofthe Hansbach. I rose, and leaning upon my iron-pointed stick Iascended the gallery. The slope was rather steep. I walked on withouthope but without indecision, like a man who has made up his mind.

For half an hour I met with no obstacle. I tried to recognise my wayby the form of the tunnel, by the projections of certain rocks, bythe disposition of the fractures. But no particular sign appeared,and I soon saw that this gallery could not bring me back to theturning point. It came to an abrupt end. I struck against animpenetrable wall, and fell down upon the rock.

Unspeakable despair then seized upon me. I lay overwhelmed, aghast!My last hope was shattered against this granite wall.

Lost in this labyrinth, whose windings crossed each other in alldirections, it was no use to think of flight any longer. Here I mustdie the most dreadful of deaths. And, strange to say, the thoughtcame across me that when some day my petrified remains should befound thirty leagues below the surface in the bowels of the earth,the discovery might lead to grave scientific discussions.

I tried to speak aloud, but hoarse sounds alone passed my dry lips. Ipanted for breath.

In the midst of my agony a new terror laid hold of me. In falling mylamp had got wrong. I could not set it right, and its light waspaling and would soon disappear altogether.

I gazed painfully upon the luminous current growing weaker and weakerin the wire coil. A dim procession of moving shadows seemed slowlyunfolding down the darkening walls. I scarcely dared to shut my eyesfor one moment, for fear of losing the least glimmer of this preciouslight. Every instant it seemed about to vanish and the denseblackness to come rolling in palpably upon me.

One last trembling glimmer shot feebly up. I watched it in tremblingand anxiety; I drank it in as if I could preserve it, concentratingupon it the full power of my eyes, as upon the very last sensation oflight which they were ever to experience, and the next moment I layin the heavy gloom of deep, thick, unfathomable darkness.

A terrible cry of anguish burst from me. Upon earth, in the midst ofthe darkest night, light never abdicates its functions altogether. Itis still subtle and diffusive, but whatever little there may be, theeye still catches that little. Here there was not an atom; the totaldarkness made me totally blind.

Then I began to lose my head. I arose with my arms stretched outbefore me, attempting painfully to feel my way. I began to runwildly, hurrying through the inextricable maze, still descending,still running through the substance of the earth's thick crust, astruggling denizen of geological 'faults,' crying,