CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Yes, it had gone mad! We were not going north, south, east, or west. As we rose in that passage, we heard many explosions, which sounded quite frightening.

"Uncle, uncle!" I cried. "We're going to die!"

"Now what are you afraid of?" he replied calmly. "What's the matter?"

"What's the matter? Look at those walls and the falling rock! And the heat, the boiling water, the thick air! These are all signs of an earthquake!"

My uncle disagreed.

"An earthquake?" he said.

"Yes!"

"I think you're mistaken."

"No, I'm expecting something better than an earthquake."

"What?"

"An explosion! We're going to rise into a volcano, Axel!"

"A volcano?"

"Yes, I think so," the professor said with a smile. "And it's the best thing that could happen to us. We're going to be thrown out of a volcano! This is our only chance of getting back to the surface of the Earth."

My uncle was right, and he spoke so calmly. We were still going up all night There was boiling water under the raft, and under the water was hot lava waiting to escape from a volcano. We were certainly in the northern region, as the instrument showed we were going north now.

Toward morning, we began moving faster. As we came closer to the surface, the heat became greater because there was more lava under us, pushing the heat towards us. Then, I suddenly saw some light. I could see fire on the walls.

"Look, uncle, look!" I cried.

"Those are perfectly natural in a volcano during an explosion. The walls are widening, so we'll be able to stay away from the fire. Now, there is no longer water, only fire-hot lava under us."

At about eight in the morning, the raft suddenly stopped for the first time. We were no longer moving.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"We've stopped, but don't worry, we'll soon be going to the opening of the volcano again."

Soon enough, the raft did begin moving again, but often stopped for a few moments at a time. We were then moving quickly. We all had to hold on to the raft, or we would have fallen off. Hans' strong arms save me more than once from hitting the wall. Therefore, my memory of the event is not clear during the next few hours. The last memory I have of being in that volcano was feeling like I was being pushed towards my death of being burned.

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