CHAPTER TWENTY

We did, indeed, have to save our water. Our water couldn't last more than three days, as I realized that evening at supper. We had very little hope of finding an underground river in that area. All throughout the next day, we continued to walk up that passage. My uncle and I spoke very little; Hans said nothing. We continued in this way for quite some time. My uncle was waiting for one of two things to happen. Either we would come to a vertical path that would take us down again into the Earth, or we would come to the end of the passageway, which would force us to go back. We went on till evening without finding either.

On Friday, after a night of terrible thirst, we again continued on our walk through the passage. After ten hours of walking, I noticed the walls had changed from the weak stones and sand to a black material. I put my hand up to the wall, then noticed that my hand was now black. I looked closely at the wall and discovered that we were surrounded by coal.

"A coal mine!" I exclaimed.

"A mine without human miners," my uncle said.

"Oh, no miners?"

"I know there are no miners. I'm certain that humans didn't make this passage through coal. But, I don't really care whether nature made it or humans. Let's eat dinner."

Hans prepared the food. I ate very little, but I drank the little water I was allowed to drink. Hans' bottle was half full. That was all the water we had left.

After our meal, we all settled in to go to sleep. But I couldn't sleep, and so I waited till the morning came.

On Saturday at six o'clock, we left. Twenty minutes later, we came to a cave that could not have been man-made. If it had been, the ceiling would have been straight; it was the mysteries of nature that kept the ceiling up. The cave was about a hundred feet wide and a hundred and fifty feet high. Looking at the walls, I could see different periods during the Earth's development In the walls, I saw the different layers of rock and sand that were pressed together to produce the coal. During this time, the surface of the Earth was covered in plant life because the center of the Earth, at that time, was so hot that it warmed the surface. Because of the heat, the air was thick and wet, which surrounded the Earth, which kept the surface of the Earth from receiving any sunlight. The climate around the Earth was the same everywhere, hot and wet. Where did the heat come from? Inside the Earth.

Although my uncle disagrees with me, I believe there was a great deal of fire deep within the Earth during this time, which heated even the surface of the Earth. The plants on the surface were covered in water, and had no flowers or smells because they did not receive the sun's light, but their roots were strong, fed by the hot earth of that time. During this time, the inside of the Earth, filled with a hot liquid, moved around a great deal, which produced changes throughout the rest of the Earth, as well. With the great movements within the Earth, plants that were under the Earth's surface changed first into soil, then into coal with the strong heat Thus, the many coal beds that were under the Earth's surface were formed. Although there are many coal beds around the Earth, there will be no more within three centuries, unless the nations of the world greatly reduce their use of coal.

This coal bed will probably never be used by humans, as it is so deep in the Earth. Taking coal from such a deep place would be too costly. Besides, there are still other coal beds closer to the surface of the Earth. So, this coal bed will remain the same until the end of the world. The temperature was still about the same, after we passed the lava walls, but then I began to smell a gas that explodes when exposed to fire. I remembered hearing stories of terrible explosions in coal mines because of the exploding gas, always present in coal mines. We were fortunate to bring electric lanterns instead of fire-burning ones. If we had been foolish enough to bring fire-burning lanterns, we would have died in a terrible explosion.

We continued through the coal bed till the evening. My uncle was quite impatient with the passage continuing to be horizontal. I was beginning to think we would never come to an end when, at six o'clock, a wall suddenly appeared in front of us. We had come to a dead end.

"Well, this is better," my uncle said. "At least we know where the passage goes. We're not following Saknussemm's way, and now we have to turn back. We'll sleep tonight, and then within three days we'll be back to where the other passageway is."

"Yes," I said, "if we have the strength to get there."

"Why shouldn't we?"

"Because by tomorrow we'll be completely out of water."

"And will we have no courage either?" the professor asked, looking seriously at me.

I knew I should say nothing.

(end of section)