CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

I can't explain how terrified I became. I touched the ground again, but felt no water, only dry rock. How had I left the stream? Now I realized why there was such a deep silence. When I first took the wrong way, I hadn't noticed that the stream had disappeared. I had taken one passage, while the stream, my uncle and Hans had taken the other.

How could I get back to it? There was no trail to follow. I did not remember from which way I had come. I was lost. Yes, I was lost many miles under the surface of the Earth. I tried to remember my life on the surface of the Earth. I remembered Hamburg, my uncle's little house and my poor Grauben. I then remembered the beginning of this journey, the ship, Iceland, the Icelandic scientist, Sneffels ... I would never see the surface of the Earth again, I worried.

"Oh, uncle!" I cried out.

Those were the only words I could say, because I realized that my poor uncle must have been suffering as he looked for me. I then remembered that I had food for three days and my water bottle was full. They would soon find me, but should I go up or down? "Up, of course! Always up!"

I would surely arrive at the opening where the two passages meet, then I would follow the stream up and go back to Sneffels. I then stood up and began walking up the passage. The path was now quite steep as I walked upward. I walked with hope, as I had nothing else to help me.

For half an hour, I walked, trying to recognize the passage as I walked through, but it didn't look familiar. Soon enough, I came to the end of the passage; it was a dead end. I sat down, filled with terror and doubt. I was now hopeless. I realized I was now going to die, seventy-five miles under the Earth. I realized, as I lost hope, that if humans ever arrived here, seventy-five miles under the Earth, my presence would be quite a mystery.

I then realized that my lantern had been damaged when I fell, and I could not repair it. The light would soon go out, and I would be able to see nothing. I watched the light go out, thinking it would be the last light I would ever see. On the surface of the Earth, there is always, at least, a little light, but here, there was nothing. I was now in complete darkness.

I then stood up and began running in that mysterious passage, always going downward. I called out to my uncle and Hans, shouting as I ran, often bumping into rocks coming out from the wall, blood running down my face. After running for several hours, I fell next to the wall of the passage and fell asleep.

(end of section)