CHAPTER FORTY

Since the beginning of our journey, I had been astonished many times. I thought by now nothing else could surprise me, but I was speechless with shock after seeing those two letters that had been there for the past three hundred years. I could no longer deny the existence of the traveler and his remarkable journey.

"Let's go!" I cried.

I was running into the dark passage when the professor stopped me. He, always the impatient one, told me to be calm and patient.

"First, let's go back to Hans," he said, "and bring the raft here. Saknussemm, you genius, you led us here! This place will now be called Cape Saknussemm, I declare!"

"Do you realize, uncle," I said as we walked back, "that this underground world has brought us here."

"You think so, Axel?"

"Yes, I do. Even the storm brought us back to this spot."

"Do you realize that now we only have to go down another thirty-seven hundred miles to get to the center of the Earth?"

"Well, let's get started," I said.

When we arrived, Hans had already put our things on the raft, and was ready for our departure. We went on the raft, and we were ready to sail to Cape Saknussemm. Finally, after three hours, at about six o'clock in the evening, we arrived.

I was now more excited than ever for the rest of our journey. I suggested that we burn the raft, so we would not turn back, but my uncle refused. He now seemed to have lost his eagerness for the trip.

"Let's leave as quickly as possible," I said.

"Of course, but first we'll examine this new passage to see if we need to prepare anything."

We then walked to the cave where the passageway was located. The opening was only twenty yards away. When we had taken a few steps inside, we discovered that rocks blocked us from entering the passage.

"Damn this rock!" I said, angry that we now had a problem.

We looked left and right, up and down, but the passage was completely blocked, and there was no other way to enter. I was quite disappointed and refused to give up. I examined the bottom of the rock, then the top. There were no holes anywhere. Hans moved the lantern all over the rock, examining each part, without finding any way to enter. We had to give up. I sat down on the ground while my uncle walked around thinking.

"But what about Saknussemm?" I asked.

"Yes," my uncle said, "I wonder if he was stopped by this rock."

"No, no!" I said. "The rock must have suddenly closed this passage; it must have fallen many years after Saknussemm had come. Look, there are cracks in the ceiling that look recent. It's made of separate pieces, huge stones, but one day the pressure on the ceiling increased and it fell. It's a problem that Saknussemm didn't have to deal with. If we can't find a way past it, we're will never reach the center of the Earth."

That was how I talked! I had received the eager excitement that my professor had when we began the journey. I no longer thought about my life on the surface of the Earth, not even about my poor Grauben, who must have believed I was dead somewhere in the Earth. I was only concerned with this goal of reaching the center of the Earth.

"All right, then," my uncle said, "let's use our tools to make a hole in the rock. We won't let this rock stop us."

"It's too hard for the tools," I said.

"But ... "

"Gunpowder! We'll use gunpowder to blow up the rock!"

"Gunpowder?"

"Yes, all we have to do is break one piece of the rock."

"Hans, let's go to work," my uncle said loudly.

Hans went back to the raft to get his tools, then began digging a hole for the gunpowder, which would cause an explosion. He had to make a hole big enough to hold fifty pounds of gunpowder, which would produce a massive explosion.

"We'll get through!" I said.

"We'll get through!" my uncle responded.

By midnight, we were ready, but my uncle decided we would wait till the morning. I had to wait another six long hours.

(end of section)