Chapter 37

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE LIEDENBROCK MUSEUM OF GEOLOGY

How shall I describe the strange series of passions which insuccession shook the breast of Professor Liedenbrock? Firststupefaction, then incredulity, lastly a downright burst of rage.Never had I seen the man so put out of countenance and so disturbed.The fatigues of our passage across, the dangers met, had all to bebegun over again. We had gone backwards instead of forwards!

But my uncle rapidly recovered himself.

"Aha! will fate play tricks upon me? Will the elements lay plotsagainst me? Shall fire, air, and water make a combined attack againstme? Well, they shall know what a determined man can do. I will notyield. I will not stir a single foot backwards, and it will be seenwhether man or nature is to have the upper hand!"

Erect upon the rock, angry and threatening, Otto Liedenbrock was arather grotesque fierce parody upon the fierce Achilles defying thelightning. But I thought it my duty to interpose and attempt to laysome restraint upon this unmeasured fanaticism.

"Just listen to me," I said firmly. "Ambition must have a limitsomewhere; we cannot perform impossibilities; we are not at all fitfor another sea voyage; who would dream of undertaking a voyage offive hundred leagues upon a heap of rotten planks, with a blanket inrags for a sail, a stick for a mast, and fierce winds in our teeth?We cannot steer; we shall be buffeted by the tempests, and we shouldbe fools and madmen to attempt to cross a second time."

I was able to develop this series of unanswerable reasons for tenminutes without interruption; not that the Professor was paying anyrespectful attention to his nephew's arguments, but because he wasdeaf to all my eloquence.

"To the raft!" he shouted.

Such was his only reply. It was no use for me to entreat, supplicate,get angry, or do anything else in the way of opposition; it wouldonly have been opposing a will harder than the granite rock.

Hans was finishing the repairs of the raft. One would have thoughtthat this strange being was guessing at my uncle's intentions. With afew more pieces of surturbrand he had refitted our vessel. A sailalready hung from the new mast, and the wind was playing in itswaving folds.

The Professor said a few words to the guide, and immediately he puteverything on board and arranged every necessary for our departure.The air was clear - and the north-west wind blew steadily.

What could I do? Could I stand against the two? It was impossible? IfHans had but taken my side! But no, it was not to be. The Icelanderseemed to have renounced all will of his own and made a vow to forgetand deny himself. I could get nothing out of a servant so feudalised,as it were, to his master. My only course was to proceed.

I was therefore going with as much resignation as I could find toresume my accustomed place on the raft, when my uncle