Chapter 41

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