CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

That was the end of my notes on our sea adventure. So now, I will explain as before.

I do not know what happened when the raft hit the rocks on the shore, but I remember being thrown in the water. Hans then pulled me up on to the raft, and my body wasn't thrown against the rocks. The fearless man then carried me to a hot beach, where my uncle was waiting.

He then returned to the rocks to save our things. I was so tired and weak that I could not speak for an hour. Meanwhile, the rain was still falling from the mysterious sky. We went into a cave where Hans prepared food, but I couldn't eat. We all then fell asleep, after three long nights without sleep.

The next day, the weather was incredible. The sky and the sea were calm. The professor was cheerful, as well.

"Well, did you sleep well?" he asked. I felt as if we were back in our house in Germany, in the same house as my dear Grauben.

"I slept quite well. And how are you?"

"I am excellent. We have come to the end of the sea. Now we'll travel by land again, and we'll really see the inside of the Earth."

"Uncle, what about going back? How will we return to the surface of the Earth?"

"Very simply. Once we get to the center of the Earth, either we'll find a new way to the surface, or we'll come back the same way we came."

My uncle then got his instruments to figure out our exact location. He was soon astonished to see that the direction we had gone was back to the same beach. During the storm, the wind had changed, and we had gone back to the same place we came from. My uncle was speechless.

(end of section)