CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

We began walking down again, this time along a new passage. Hans was in front, as usual.

I noticed that there were many cracks in the rocks that formed the walls of the passageway. During the period after the Earth was heated by the center of the Earth, it cooled a great deal, which produced this wall to crack in many places as it quickly cooled. As we examined the wall, filled with different types of rock and showing bits of gold and other metals.

It was now eight in the evening. We still had no water. I was suffering horribly. My uncle walked on, refusing to hear my complaints. My legs were becoming quite weak. Finally, I lost all strength, and cried out as I fell to the ground.

"Help! I'm dying!"

My uncle came back, looked at me, then said, "It's all over," quietly before I fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes again, Hans and my uncle were asleep. I couldn't fall asleep again. I was in too much pain. I worried that I would not survive this journey. I did not know how I would be able to return to the surface of Sneffels. We were four miles under the Earth.

A few hours went by. There was a deep silence, the silence of death. No sound could come through those walls, which were at least four miles thick. Then, I heard a sound. I looked closer and saw Hans leaving with one of the lanterns. Why was he leaving us? But then, I was ashamed to realize that he was going deeper into the passage. Had he gone to find something he had heard? Why did he leave?

(end of section)